How to not Die During the Zombie Apocalypse
by SephCurrentDaughterofPoseidon
Summary: Clary Fray and her sister, Tessa, are both on the road trying to stay alive. Of course, there are a lot of obvious rules and regulations to surviving the Apocalypse. So what happens when the two sisters, who are practically experts, meet a pair of gorgeous, zombie slaying cousins that make them question everything that they have ever known? AU AH
1. Never Trust Strangers

**Okay, so this is my newest story! How to not Die During the Zombie Apocalypse. I hope you like it, and despite the two genre categories that it is under, I promise that it is going to be every bit as funny as all of my other fics.**

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><p><em><strong>Chapter One: Never Trust Strangers<strong>_

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><p><em><strong>~Clary~<strong>_

Clary woke up when she heard a loud banging noise. She sat up on a soft and plush mattress. It took her a moment to remember that she and Tessa had stopped the night before at an abandoned house for rest.

She looked over groggily and realized that her sister was no longer on the large bed beside her; that, coupled with the loud sound that'd woke her up, was enough to send Clary into a slight panic.

She immediately pushed herself off the Mattress and got to her feet. She grabbed the knife off the short wooden nightstand standing beside the bed and raced out of the open doorway.

The house was small with only two tiny bedrooms, a bathroom, and a living room that led into the kitchen. It was obvious that it'd been abandoned since the beginning of the end of the world. The dust was settled on the floors, the walls, and the sparse pieces of furniture that littered the rooms.

She moved out of the room and walked through the tiny hallway. The bathroom door was opened, but when Clary stuck her head inside, all she saw was a grimy toilet and a dry rotted curtain covering a shower. Feeling a little more panicky, she backed away and moved toward the kitchen at a run, making it there in under a second. This was a feat due to the shortness of her...well everything, really.

She expected to walk in on an ambush of three or four stumbling creatures chasing after her terrified sister. They would be slimy and gross as they attempted to catch her and sink their rotting teeth into her flesh.

Instead, all Clary saw was Tessa.

Her tall form was bent over a familiar large gym bag that as filled with what Clary was pretty sure were cans of food. It was probably what made the noise that had startled her so badly. Now that she thought back, it was a high pitch clink, more than a bang. Considering the fact that the bag was sitting in a messy heap on the filthy linoleum flooring, it was a pretty safe bet to make that it had been a false alarm.

Clary sighed quietly in relief, but it carried across the silent room a lot further than she'd thought. Tessa straightened up and spun around quickly. She stared at Clary with an expression that was equivalent of a child getting caught with their hand in a cookie jar.

She smiled at me sheepishly as she pushed a strand of her long, dark hair behind her ears. "I didn't mean to startle you," she said, her blue-grey eyes showing the same amount of guilt as her voice. "I figured that I could get us a bit of food ready to eat before we had to leave."

"That's fine," she said quickly, holding her hands up to stop her from apologizing any further; if Tessa wanted to handle the food who was Clary to stop her? "You go ahead and do that. I'll go out and look around to make sure no zombies decide to stumble up and surprise us."

"It's a good thing that they aren't attracted that much by sight," Tessa informed her jokingly. "Your hair would have gotten us caught years ago."

Clary smiled at the comment. "Shut up, Tess," she said. "You're just jealous that you don't look like this."

"You mean short and pale with red hair?" she asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Exactly," Clary said, ignoring her sarcasm. She walked toward the living room, where the front door was. As she placed her hand on the knob, she called over her shoulder, "You forgot the freckles!"

She held on to her knife a bit more firmly, smirking as she heard the faint sound of her sister's laughter from the kitchen. She took a deep breath and opened the door, her knife raised to impale anything in her way. Except there was nothing waiting to lunge at me from the other side, much to her relief.

She walked out on to the porch, looking around carefully.

There was no way that one was getting past her notice. It threw her off that there was nothing around. Nothing at all. Not that she was complaining, but there was always one or two of the undead just shuffling around, hoping that she and Tessa might slip up so they could get some food.

She frowned as she slowly descended the stairs. There was nothing around...the front, at least. Sure that she'll find at least one walking corpse to put down in the back, she began to walk to the nearest side. She saw one at the very edge of her vision, but nothing close enough to concern her. They only started moving quickly when they sensed possible food. So it would be stumbling along for half a day before it made it close enough to sense them and start moving more quickly. She simply shrugged and turned around.

She noticed that the wind was starting to pick up a certain chilliness to it. She and Tessa were going to have to grab some jackets soon. She made a mental note to stop at the next store that they came across.

She climbed back up the stairs and stepped back inside. Tessa, who'd been sitting crisscross applesauce on the floor emptying out cans into bowls, jumped to her feet. She had a wickedly long and sharp knife in front of her, clearly intent on beheading whatever was in the doorway.

They locked eyes for a moment before she lowered her arm, breathing heavily. "Scared me," she said as she settled back down. She placed the knife on the floor beside her. "It didn't take you too long."

"No stragglers," Clary explained. She walked over the dusted carpet and to the linoleum flooring. She sat beside her sister, the freezing floor permeating through her jeans. She shivered slightly as she grabbed her blue plastic bowl of what looked like pork and beans mush for breakfast. Scrumptious.

As she started slowly lifting her battered spoon to her mouth, she saw her sister looking at her funnily out of the corner of her eye. "There were no stragglers?" she questioned incredulously. Clary sat her spoon back in her bowl and turned to look at her sister. She had her arms crossed over her chest, her bowl sat on the floor untouched.

"None," Clary agreed solemnly. "I don't know why, I just know that there weren't any."

"I don't like this," Tessa said, frowning as she turned and looked out of the kitchen window. It wasn't like she could see anything but the sky at the angle at she was looking at. It made Clary wonder sarcastically if she was looking to see if it was going to start raining the undead.

"What don't you like?" Clary asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Personally, it made my morning a little easier. For some reason, the thought of impaling a knife into the forehead of a used-to-be-human, which happens to be located too close to the mouth for comfort, puts a damper on my day.

"Clary," Tessa says in that gentle older sister voice, "I don't think you're getting it."

"What is there to get?" she demanded, finally scooping out a pile of the gunk that was her breakfast and shoveling it into her mouth.

"There were stragglers last night," she said slowly, hitting her outstretched left index finger with her right one, as though she was ticking off a point. "We killed those ones, but think about it, why weren't there any this morning to kill? When there's one zombie around, Clary, there's always a few shuffling behind it somewhere." Tessa looked at her sister pointedly, and Clary just stared back blankly, still not getting her sister's train of thought. "If we didn't kill them, Clary," Tessa said, her voice was now holding the slightest hint of impatience, "then who did?"

"Oh," Clary managed weakly, "I get it now." Someone else was nearby.

"You remember our oath, right?" Tessa asked Clary sharply.

Clary nodded. She remembered the group of people who'd killed their parents two years before over a few cans of meaningless food. If Tessa wouldn't have thought to have grabbed the frying pan and slammed it over the top of the head of the man who was coming after them, neither would be here. She found herself rattling it off to her sister, "Never trust strangers."

She felt dread pooling in her stomach as she looked over at Tessa. "We need to get out of here," Tessa said, "before we find out who these strangers are."

"Agreed," Clary nodded in confirmation. She stood up and grabbed the bag in one hand and the knife in the other. "Let's get packed. We can eat on the go."

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><p><em><strong>~Jace~<strong>_

There was something about zombie hunting that just completed Jace Herondale. He didn't know if it was the way that he was able to simply release pent-up aggression, or if it was the glee of being able to do something so violent and not be punished for it. It was probably a strange mixture of the two.

He and his cousin, Will, were out on a three day raid of a supermarket a couple of towns over for the small community that they'd managed to salvage in the town of Alicante. They'd stopped at every single untouched gas station along the way and managed to loot them clean. So it was the middle of their second day when they finally hit the town. Jace was driving the large red Ford truck while his cousin Will sat shotgun. He had his nose stuck in an old map, giving him directions to the center of the town, which was where the store of choice.

"You think we'll be able to find Cecily something for her birthday?" Will asked him, suddenly breaking the silence between them, which had lasted well over three hours. Jace was fairly sure that it was a record.

"Do you even know when her birthday is?" Jace asked him, actually curious. He looked away from the deserted road for a moment to look at his cousin, who hadn't looked away from the map yet. All Jace could see was his mop of black hair, which he hadn't bothered brushing since they'd left, and the edge of a blue eye.

"I know it's when it's just starting to get cold out," he says. "It's toward the end of September, and considering the fact that it was fairly chilly out this morning…." he trailed off, clearly figuring that an ending to the sentence was not needed.

Jace shrugged. "She's what? Sixteen now?" He looked over at Will, who was slowly nodding, as though he was unsure of the exact age himself. "What do sixteen year old girls even _like?"_

"Oh, yes," Will said sarcastically, finally tearing his gaze away from the map to look at him sharply, his blue eyes obviously glowing in irritation, "ask me because I obviously know what a sixteen year old girl likes! I was one only a few years ago!"

Jace nodded his head. "That explains a lot. Probably why you scream like a little bitch every time we see a zombie."

He looked back at the road for a moment, maneuvering out of the way of a station wagon that had been abandoned in their lane of the road. He looked back at Will and snorted at the venomous look that his cousin was favoring him with. It was quite hilarious.

"Something wrong, William?" Jace asked innocently.

"Nothing at all Jaciepoo," Will replied smartly. "I'm simply planning your death in a methodical manner. I'm even taking into consideration how to muffle your screams so the zombies won't hear us."

"Two requests," Jace replied easily as he turned off an exit ramp that would take them directly to the middle of the town. "First, don't shove a _sock_ in my mouth. Especially not a dirty one that's been anywhere near your disease ridden foot."

Will snorted and shook his head as he began folding up their map. "Noted," he said with a nod.

"Secondly," he said. "Whatever you do, make sure that my face isn't affected. It's much too attractive to sustain damage."

"You sure it isn't because you don't want to be any uglier than you already are?" Will asked; his voice was steady and straight. Jace turned his head and looked over at him. He was just staring at Jace with a raised eyebrow. Jace almost bought it, but he could see the corners of Will's lips fighting from forming a smile.

"You've got it mixed up," Jace informed him cheekily. "You see, I'm the stunningly handsome one and you're the stunningly hideous bastard."

"I think you've done something to your head," Will said. Jace saw the back of his hand coming toward his face, but since he was driving, it wasn't as though he could really dodge it. He winced slightly, as it slammed into his forehead. "You don't have a fever. Have you been taking anything that would make you hallucinate? I mean I know the past few years have been hard on you, but I'm telling you, Jace, drugs are not the answer!"

Jace rolled his eyes and swatted Will's hand away from his face. "Shut up, Will."

"That the best comeback that you can muster up, little cousin?" Will asked mockingly. "I'm terrified. Clearly we have a lot of things to work on…like sharpening your wit again."

Jace would have said more, but he saw the large building of the store that was their target. It no longer had any distinguishing signs that would tell anyone what it was, but Jace wasn't stupid.

"Welcome to the magical world of Wal-Mart," he said, leaning over at patting Will on the shoulder. "Are you sure that a gorgeous pretty boy like yourself won't mind venturing inside?"

"Not entirely," Will replied smartly. "I'm sure I can suck it up just this once."

"Good," he said, looking out of his side window. "Because we have a couple of stragglers starting to limp our way and I would hate hogging all of the fun."

Before Will could reply, Jace had already leaned into the back and grabbed his favorite two blades. He couldn't remember the actual names for them, only that they were weird. They were long, almost like two short swords, and they were wickedly sharp.

Will reached in behind him and pulled out an actual sword. It was his pride and joy, Jace knew, and he had to admit that Will was good with it. He would hate to get into an actual fight with him. "Well let's go," Will said. "Whoever kills the most zombies is off the hook for tonight's drive."

Jace found himself nodding. Will stuck out his hand, and Jace grasped it. They shook on it once firmly and Jace said, "You're on."

He opened his door and jumped outside. He heard Will do the same on the other side of the truck. The zombies seemed to move even more quickly now that he and Will were exposed. Jace looked down at his knives and whirled them around in his hands.

"Let's not get scratched this time," he said as Will walked over to his side. His cousin casted him an award winning grin, showing off his straight and bright white teeth.

"Sounds like a plan, little cousin," Will nodded. And then they went to work. Jace took off in a run, his arms behind him slightly as he came to his first victims. They were limping toward him with their arms stretched out in his direction. He could see the dirt and grime on their fingernails as he vaulted off the ground. In mid-summersault, he slashed his arms forward, not having to look to know that he'd made his mark. He could feel the knives tearing past the rotted flesh and bone. The sound of their dismembered heads hitting the pavement, which had made him sick the first few times that he'd heard it, was music to his ears.

He landed gracefully on his feet right in front of another straggler. He flashed his knife forward, blocking its hand from reaching him, and bringing his other knife around. He drove it into the monster's skull and ripped it out at the same time that he flipped the hilt his other knife over in his hand and slammed it backward, catching the creature behind him before it could get to him. He turned around and saw that he'd managed to catch it in the neck. He brought his other knife up and, with one clean strike the head was off the zombie's shoulders.

And, just like that, they were alone all over again, with dismembered bodies lying all around them.

"Four so far, William," Jace said, turning to face his cousin.

Will smirked at him, his hand gesturing grandly to his handiwork. "Well, Jace," he said, "I'm not sure why you're so smug. Allow me to explain, seeing as you can't count. I've killed five."

Jace's smugness faded slightly, but he managed to regain it quickly. "It's no matter," he said with a shrug. "There's still plenty of time."

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><p><em><strong>~Tessa~<strong>_

"You dragged me in here," Tessa said aggravated, "for _coats?"_ She was looking at her sister incredulously. "I can't believe you!"

"Yes you can," Clary said, waving behind her blindly, though it was in Tessa's general direction. "We need jackets, and I'm not about to freeze. We can get in and get out." They were standing in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and both of them were looking at the old building.

Tessa looked away first and her eyes caught the sight of something grave indeed: mangled bodies. Actually, they would be mangled, dismembered bodies. "Clary," she said, taking a step in the direction of the offensive sight. "Clary, do you see that?"

"See what?" her sister asked. A moment later, she must have followed Tessa's gaze, because she inhaled a small and sharp bit of breath and said, "Oh, that."

Tessa moved forward. She'd had it with all of the strangeness of the day. The stragglers not around that morning had been odd enough, but this was something else entirely. As she got closer to the bodies, she realized that the goo that was coming from the stumps of the creatures' necks was still gooey, and that the footprints that were leading away from the now permanent corpses and to the Wal-Mart were still wet.

"These are fresh," Tessa said, looking over at Clary. "I think we need to go somewhere else for your coats."

"I think," Clary said, "that this has to be connected to this morning, and if it is," the shorter girl shrugged, "I want to ask them why they've been so close to us." Tessa had really wished that Clary was going to tell her that they could just go. Not confirm her fear and then insist on facing it. "If they have a problem with it," she pulled her long knife out of its sheath and twirled it around in her palm as a wicked smile started growing on her face, "I guess we can settle it easily."

"Why is it that you always cause trouble?" Tessa asked. "It won't take us an hour to get to another city. We can get jackets there!"

"Because," Clary said, turning to look at her with a shrug, "This is _fun."_

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><p>So, obviously, when Clary said that going into a Wal-Mart that has already been entered by some other possibly dangerous band of strangers would be fun, Tessa would have suggested that she be sent in for a mental evaluation if the world was up and running. It was needless to say that when they stepped inside and she said, "Split up, it'll be quicker!" and ran away from her before she could say anything, Tessa was contemplating whether or not she should have been committed as a child; this level of insanity didn't just come in overnight.<p>

She had no other choice than to go her own way, mostly because she lost sight of Clary moments after she ran off. Tessa wasn't worried about her; she knew that Clary could take care of herself. She was more worried about the fact that there were other people inside of the store and she didn't know where they were. Even if they weren't dangerous, she and Clary didn't really need any distractions from their goal of being out of the town and into a new one before the sun went down. They were already seriously running late.

"I'm going to kill her," Tessa muttered under her breath as she looked forward. The store was a mess. Everything around her was in disarray; clothes were strewn all over the floor, along with broken and scuffed toys, old and battered boxes, and the occasional severed limb. Why Clary, of all people, who was short and small, would want to run off was beyond her.

"Fine," Tessa muttered to herself, walking forward. She had her knife sheathed still, not really wanting it out as she was maneuvering through different mounds of shirts and other trinkets that she could break her ankle over. She'd impale herself for sure. "The sooner I get a stupid jacket and the sooner I catch back up with Clary, the sooner we can leave!"

"You know, lady, talking to yourself isn't really a good sign," the voice—obviously a guy's—came from somewhere to her right. She spun on her booted heel and gripped the hilt of her knife, sliding it from her sheath effortlessly. She held it protectively in front of her, every single one of her muscles was tensed as she looked around for the unwelcomed intruder. She didn't see one, though. All she saw were aisles that had been knocked over like dominos, clothing racks, most of which were no longer standing, and a banner advertising for a sale for some clothing line that was only being held up by one string; the other end was brushing against the ground.

He stepped out from behind the banner. He was about twenty feet away from her, and the entire store was casted into shadows, so most of his features weren't sharp enough for her to make out at such a distance. The only things that she could see for sure were the piercing blue eyes that were looking at her with the same level of distrust that she felt.

"Who are you?" she demanded. She didn't like the casual manner that he was just standing in.

He smiled at her, though she could tell that it wasn't a warm one, and crossed his arms. "Why would I tell you that?" he demanded. "Isn't the rule _ladies first_?"

"Shockingly," Tessa said, "I'm not in much of a sharing mood at the moment. I also asked nicely," she looked down at the weapon that she was holding. "Don't think that I'm going to do that again."

"You need to work on your communication skills," the boy informed her coolly, taking a step in her direction. "That isn't how you make friends."

"I don't need you as my friend," Tessa snapped at him, not liking that he was moving toward her, but she wasn't willing to show intimidation by backing away. "I need you to back off and tell me what kind of stupid death wish you have."

"It's more of a suicidal thing," he said with a shrug, "or at least that's what my cousin, Jace, says."

"Your cousin," Tessa said slowly, "is he here?"

"Nah-ah-ah," the blue-eyed boy shook his head at her, his cold smile turning more crooked as he took another step forward. "I'm not that easy to interrogate, though, if you're going to use the other methods you're going to have to take me out to dinner a few times first."

Tessa was silent as she looked the boy over. He still had the distrusting look in his eyes despite the crooked grin, but she still had to stay silent for a moment to ensure that she'd heard what she thought that she'd heard.

"I think," Tessa snapped at him, "that this is a good time for you to be serious."

The boy's smirk only seemed to grow. "This is serious for me."

Tessa looked away from him for a moment, hoping that Clary would just pop out of the shadows and they could figure out what to do about this smart-mouthed idiot before leaving. Sadly, she came up empty-handed in her searches.

"Looking for someone?" the boy asked. His tone was smug, almost as though he knew something that she didn't. His next words confirmed this feeling. "Short, like five foot three, red hair, pale skin, freckles?"

This time Tessa took a step forward herself, clenching her jaw together as she clasped the hilt of her knife more firmly. "Where's my sister?"

"Your sister is she?" the boy mused as though he found her more humorous than anything else. "You two don't look very much alike."

"Look," Tessa said to him, her patience finally snapping. "Either you tell me where she is, or I'll stab you with my knife!"

"You mean that you were trying to intimidate me with that little prick that you've got there?" he questioned with a humorless laugh as he nodded toward her weapon. "I figured that you were using that to cut down any little streamers that were in your way."

"Cute," she said to him dryly. "We'll see if you find this to be a prick when I stab you in the chest with it!" She took a step forward and held it right above her waist so that the point was angled toward his chest. "Tell me where Clary is!"

The boy shrugged. "I just saw her run off; she disappeared." He looked at her silently for another couple of seconds before remarking, "Just for the record, I answered that because I _wanted_ to, not because I was scared by your little letter opener."

"I don't have time for this," Tessa groaned. "I need to go and get far away from you and your cousin, who might or might not be here!"

"Most women don't want to get away from me so quickly," he looked down at his body, as if checking his own figure out. "You hit your head or something?"

"Clearly you have," she replied venomously. "Just leave me alone, and stay away from me and my sister."

Before the boy could even so much as get the smug smirk off his face, there was a loud clattering noise, and two yells. The boy's eyes widened and he swore under his breath. "Jace!" Tessa saw his hand reach around to his back and a moment later, she heard the swishing noise of something coming out of a sheath. It was a large and wicked sword.

She couldn't even find it in herself to concentrate on that. She inhaled sharply and took off toward the back part of the store, where she was pretty sure that she heard the noise from.

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><p><em><strong>~Will~<strong>_

So taunting and tormenting the admittedly pretty girl that was just standing on top of a large pile of clothes was probably a bad idea, but he really couldn't help himself. He'd seen her sister dash away from her excitedly, and he'd already been separated from Jace to pick up all the different things on their lists, so he'd been thinking about keeping her away from his cousin because of the shorter girl that was bounding around somewhere in the store.

When he'd heard his cousin and a girl—probably the redhead—scream, he'd immediately dropped his joking demeanor for a more concerned one. He swore quietly, and more loudly, "Jace!" He pulled his sword out of its sheath. By that time, the girl with the brown hair and grey-blue eyes had turned around and started racing toward the noise. She was a total stranger racing toward his cousin. Will felt his foot push off the ground and he found himself darting after her.

He hadn't realized how tall she'd been atop the pile of junk that she'd been on. She was pretty lengthy; five foot ten, at the least. It made sense that she was so quick on her long legs. Will caught up to her after a couple of seconds, but, unlike his first instinct, he didn't stop her. Instead, he simply ran with her. She had her sister back there as well…_Clary_; that was what the girl had called her.

Will tripped and stumbled over a curtail rod, some sheets, a large pillow with half the stuffing scattered around it. The girl next to him had managed to nimbly dodge most things, but she'd still managed to trip herself up, going so far as to fall a couple of times. Will didn't so much as cast her a second glace as he moved forward. He heard her feet hitting the floor as she began moving again.

"Will!" he heard Jace's voice call toward him loudly. His cousin's tone was rarely anything but controlled, but this time it definitely had some obviously panicked.

He made it past a messy row of fallen aisles and saw his cousin's shaggy blond hair, and fit frame perched over a prone form.

"What the hell'd you do to my sister?" the girl behind him screeched. Her voice was so loud that he winced slightly at the noise.

Will turned around and managed to catch her in midair as she tried to jump at Jace. He threw her unceremoniously to the ground and turned to look at his cousin. "Jace," he said, his voice deadly calm, "What happened?"

"She saved my life," Jace said, turning to look at a dismembered corpse in a battered suit that was lying in a heap, black blood oozing from the stump that his head was going to be. "We were arguing one moment, and then she pushed me out of the way." He looked up at Will. "It scratched her."

The other girl was back on her feet, and Will hadn't even realized it until he felt something heavy and sharp hit the back of his head. He saw stars as he stumbled forward a few steps, just managing to regain his balance before he toppled into Jace. He spun around in time to have the brunette smack his sword out of his hand and point the knife to his neck. He felt the sharp steel sitting coldly against the skin. Immediately, his hands went up as he tried to think of something to say that might reconcile with her before he literally lost his head.

"What the hell?" Jace's voice came out behind him. "Are you crazy, lady?"

"Shut up!" Will snapped at his cousin. "I like having a head, Jace!" He looked at the girl in her narrowed eyes and said, "If you promise not to kill me, we can get your sister the medical attention that she needs."

"Why should I trust you?" she sneered.

"Think about it," Jace said as he slowly rose from the ground. "If I wanted to hurt your sister, I wouldn't have killed the zombie that tried to take a bite out of her shoulder."

"No," she snapped at him. "You just let him stick a handful of claws in her!"

"I wouldn't have let it do anything," Jace cried. "Listen…Tessa?" he looked at her with a raised eyebrow, as if making sure that he got the name right. "She's hurt, and if she doesn't get medical attention, she's going to die. We have a—"

"Jace!" Will snapped at him angrily. He might not have been able to glower at his cousin, but he was hoping to pass on his anger to him by sound alone. "Is there something wrong with your head? You don't just give out that kind of information to any pretty face that's looking for it!"

"I'm not looking for any information from you," Tessa snapped at him, her knife digging a little more firmly into his throat. "Keep talking, Jace."

"She saved my life," Jace told Will quietly. "I can't just let her die."

Will sighed, but knew that he was right.

"We have a small community of people a bit further out," Jace said to Tessa. "We have a few people there that are really good with medicine that can heal her up. She isn't the first scratch we've seen."

When Tessa didn't remove her knife from his throat, Will tentatively reached his hand forward, placing it on her arm. He didn't look away from her, and was afraid that he'd miscalculated his move when she tensed up. "Look, Tessa," he said, trying to keep his voice level and reasonable. "I can see that you care a lot about your sister, so don't let your stubbornness be the thing that gets her killed."

That finally did it. She slowly lowered her knife, wrenching her arm away from him. "Fine," she said. "Let's go." Will didn't miss the obvious mistrust that was shining in her eyes. He couldn't blame her, though. After all, Clary had hurt herself with Jace.

"Alright," Will said. "We can all fit into the truck."

Tessa moved forward, most likely intent on grabbing her sister, but Jace said, "I think I can handle her." Before anyone could say anything else, he'd grabbed her behind her neck and under her knees. He stood up and looked at them. He shrugged at Tessa, who was looking at him coldly, "It's the least I can do."

"Don't try anything funny," she snapped at him.

Jace looked at Will, raising an eyebrow. The message that he sent was loud and clear: _Crazy!_ "Grab your sword, man," he said to Will. "You're going to need to pick up my and your slack."

"Let's save the trash-talking for later," Will suggested quietly so Tessa didn't hear him. He leaned down and picked up his preferred weapon. "Right now, we need to start thinking up an excuse to feed Luke about bringing in two outsiders."

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, but the plot is mine!<strong>

**Hey guys! I hope that you all liked the first chapter. I'm excited about this one and I'm hoping that you all are too. There's plenty more to come after this! It's 2:30 in the morning where I'm at, so I'm not really going to make this a lengthy author's note this time. Maybe later. Review on your way out and let me know what you think! Let me know if the story itself is something that I should even bother finishing.**


	2. Never Stop at Creepy Gas Stations

**I just wanted to thank you all for the reviews that I received for the first chapter. 14 was an amazing number, and I was so excited, I replied to all of them that I could, but as for the Anons, Thank you all so much for your kind reviews. I'm sorry that I can't reply to you like I did the others.**

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><p><em><strong>Chapter Two: Never Stop at Creepy Gas Stations<strong>_

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Clary~<strong>_

When she'd split from Tessa on a sudden whim, it hadn't been one of her best and brightest moments, but she was more than capable of taking care of herself just like her sister was. Besides, she knew that the people who'd dismembered the corpses were inside of the building somewhere and she wanted to see them and say hello. She didn't have to trust them to want to indulge in the act of human contact with someone that wasn't her sister. Of course, she still walked into the general direction of the clothes and coats. The floor was covered in miscellaneous objects, so it wasn't as though she could really tell what department would be more promising for a jacket versus a bra at the moment.

She was kneeling down beside a small pile of what looked to be curtains, pushing past them, hoping to at least find something useful when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. When she looked up, she saw gold. His hair, his skin, his eyes. The tall boy seemed to just _glow_ a golden hue. Clary didn't know if she was practically drooling over the way that he looked simply because he was the first guy that she'd seen that hadn't had his skin practically falling off him in almost three years, but she liked what she saw. His angular facial features made her fingers itch to pick up a pencil and try and capture his likeness on paper, something that she hadn't felt like doing in a long time.

"As much as I like it when a pretty girl stares at me," his voice carried across the distance that she realized wasn't so large, "I think we might need to talk."

She had been so enamored by him that she hadn't realized that he was staring back at her, a smirk beginning to curl its way on to his face. His voice rang in her ears, there was something funny about it; not that it was deeper and a lot more masculine than what she was used to hearing compared to her sister's tinkling voice, but the way that it sounded foreign, as if he'd moved to the United States before the apocalypse had started. As soon as she began speculating about it, she remembered that he was a stranger. Tessa's number one rule about strangers rang in her ears and she felt her heart hammering slightly as she stood up abruptly, taking a step backward.

"There's nothing to talk about," she said. "Why don't you turn around and walk off?"

"You seemed pretty okay a moment ago when you were practically undressing me with your eyes," he informed her dryly. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her with a smug grin. He walked forward and Clary could see the hilt of two long knives extending from sheaths on either side of his waist.

She looked down at her own knife that was sheathed on her own waist. It wasn't as large as his, and that made her nervous. She immediately retreated a couple of steps and said, "You're awfully arrogant."

"I'm wounded," he replied as he took another step forward. "I was merely stating an observation that I'd made."

Why had she taken off from Tessa again? Oh yeah! To talk to the same guy she was now trying to get away from.

"Okay," he said, holding hands up as he took another step forward. She was about to respond with another one back when he said, "I don't want to hurt you. I just want to talk. It's been a while since I've seen a new face."

"You have no idea," Clary found herself agreeing to his words. "The only person that I've seen is my sister, Tessa for the past two years."

The blond boy smiled and said, "I guess that makes me a nice change, then."

Clary looked at him, feeling the sense of mistrust starting to kick in again. Why had she given the information about her sister out?

"Nice change or not," she said, her voice coming out firm, "I still don't know you, which means that I don't trust you."

"Well then let's talk and get to know one another," he said as though it was the simplest thing in the world. "I mean most girls world die to be in your shoes, even now." Clary continued to gape at him. She couldn't believe that he was being this arrogant. "We can start with the basics. My name is Jace Herondale; what's yours?"

She opened her mouth and was about to answer him. She realized what she was about to do just in time and stopped herself. "None of your business," she snapped at him instead.

"I thought we were sharing," he confided in her, his eyes sarcastically wide. "It's what you wanted, wasn't it?"

"I want you to go away!" she snapped at him.

He didn't go away. Instead, he took another step in her direction and came up to where he was standing directly in front of her; there might have been a foot of space between them. "Don't be like that, Red."

"_Red?" _she demanded.

"Well, yeah," he shrugged. "You know, like your hair. You refuse to share your name, so I had to improvise."

"You're an idiot," she decided, shaking her head. She moved to turn around, not even really intimidated by him anymore. Before she could, however, she saw something shift slightly behind him. She frowned and looked around his shoulder since she was much too short to look over it.

"And you're clearly in your own little world," Jace observed. "You mind telling me what's so interesting about it?"

Clary was about to tell him in excruciating detail where he could shove those condescending questions when she saw the movement again. She caught a small portion of a silhouette and knew exactly what it was. She cursed loudly and jumped toward Jace, not even really sure _why_ she was helping him. The blond was too surprised to do anything other than yelp and fall sideways and away from the threat. Both of them rolled to the ground.

She felt a pain explode in her shoulder before she even hit the earth and knew what happened. She felt dread pooling in her stomach as she laid halfway on top of Jace's firm upper body. "Jesus, Red," she heard him say to her past the pain that was starting to take over her entire consciousness, "you didn't strike me as a handsy type of girl."

She groaned in response, her vision rapidly dimming. Jace said something else, his voice so sharp that she was pretty sure that he was swearing despite the fact that she didn't hear a word he said. She felt herself being pushed aside, and when she hit her shoulder, she felt herself scream bloody murder from pain, and she was pretty sure she heard Jace call out that stupid nickname he'd used for her. After that, she didn't feel anything. She only felt and saw darkness.

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Jace~<strong>_

He was stuffed in the backseat of Will's pickup with Clary. The unconscious redhead was lying down with her head on his lap. He felt guilt pooling around in his stomach every time he looked down at her paling face. Tessa was sitting shotgun while Will was driving. Jace noticed the way that the sun-visor was down on her side of the truck and the flap that revealed the mirror was pulled up. She kept looking in it, and he had a feeling that she wasn't looking at her reflection when she did. Judging from the angle that she had it at, she was able to see him and Clary whenever she wanted.

He had neglected to inform Tessa that Clary would probably still be conscious and most likely cursing at him if he had been watching his surroundings instead of teasing her like an idiot. Somehow, the pit in his stomach, which had already felt bottomless, seemed to get impossibly deeper as he allowed his thoughts to broaden.

He looked away from both of the girls and out of the windows. He spotted several walking corpses limping toward the truck as it sped down the highway. Their arms were stretched out toward it, and though Jace couldn't make out their faces due to the speed that the truck was going, he could imagine that their mouths were open as though they were preparing to chomp down on a meal that would never come. Suckers!

He looked back down at Clary after a few more moments, quickly becoming bored with zombie-watching. The top part of her shirt, on her left shoulder was shredded open and Jace could see a mixture of blood and infection oozing from the wound. He could only imagine the pain that she would be in if she was awake. He wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy.

Jace placed his hand on the skin around it and grimaced slightly. "Will," he called up to the front seat. "We're going to need something to clean this wound with and fast. The infection's spreading faster than we can drive."

"I will have you know that I am perfectly capable of driving like a madman," his cousin informed him smartly.

"Will," Jace said; his tone had a warning note to not mess around in it.

"I know, Jace" he sighed.

"Well then what are we going to do?" Jace asked.

"We didn't pick any first aid supplies while we were raiding the store," Will told him from the driver's seat. His voice was calm, but Jace could see where his hands had tightened on the steering-wheel to the point that his knuckles were whitening. He was obviously concerned.

"Do you have any in that trailer of yours?" Tessa demanded

They were pulling a trailer, which was only halfway full of necessities. "If there was any in the trailer," Jace said, trying his best to keep patient. "I would have told Will to stop and I would have grabbed the supplies to clean it with a while ago. Actually, I would have done it before we left."

"Why didn't we grab any before we left?" Tessa demanded.

"Did you see the state of the store?" Will asked her, his patience seemingly effortless. He took his eyes off the road for a second to cast her a reassuring smile before looking away and saying, "It would have taken too long. Don't worry; we can stop at the next gas station. They might have something that we can use."

* * *

><p>Jace would have rather let Will roundhouse kick his teeth out than to admit that he didn't want to stop at the next gas station that came up, but he really didn't. The windows were shattered, all of the glass lying on the ground in front of the stone brick building in small shards. The concrete that the entire parking lot, including where the four gas pumps were sitting a bit farther out, was bathed in a reddish-brown tint. It was as thought a sea of blood had come through and washed everything away, breaking the glass while it was at work.<p>

"Alright," Will said, turning off the truck and turning around to look at Jace. "The girls can stay in the truck; you and I can go inside and see what we can find."

Jace nodded and shifted and lifted Clary's head so he could lay her on the seat comfortably when he got out. "No!" Tessa snapped, making him pause.

His eyes snapped up so that he could get a good look at either her expression or Will's. He managed to get a glimpse at both. Tessa was scowling at Will as he looked back at her, clearly alarmed. "Is there something wrong?" Will questioned slowly. "I figured that I was doing you a favor."

"What part of _I don't trust you_ don't you get?" she demanded heatedly.

"We're trying to save her life," Jace said, leaning forward slightly; his tone was nearing exasperation. "Explain to me what possible reason would we have for keeping you in a truck _away_ from possible threats and with your sister if we were trying to hurt either of you?"

"Fine," Will said, his voice starting to strain slightly. It was obvious that he was starting to lose his patience as well. "If it will make you feel better, Tessa, you can come with us, since I figure that you don't trust either of us alone in the truck to watch your sister, and we can lock the doors. I'll even give you the keys."

She slowly started nodding, and the only thing that Jace could think of was _holy trust issues._ "Fine," she said

Will turned the truck off and pulled the keys out of the ignition. Instead of handing them to her immediately, he opened the door and jumped out. He turned around and looked at them expectantly. Jace lifted Clary's head all over again with one hand and opened the door with the other. He slid out carefully and shut it behind him. Tessa was at his side a second later, her door shut as well. A few of the undead were limping their way, but they were maybe thirty feet or so away and it would take them a moment or two to get to them. He heard a familiar click and knew that Will had locked the doors behind them.

Silently, he gestured for Tessa to lead the way toward his cousin and the gas station. Will walked out to the front of the truck and jingled the keys out in front of him. "Catch," he said calmly before gently throwing them into the air. She stretched her hand out and caught them a moment later. Jace frowned at them, not really having a chance to examine them before she stuffed them into her pocket. Something looked off about the keychain, though.

"You guys go ahead inside," Jace nodded toward the glassless doors of the building. "I'll take care of the undead outside."

Will smiled at him, but Jace swore he saw a flash of concern in his eyes. "Don't let your guard down again, little cousin. Imagine the damage that Alec would suffer if he found out that his best friend was killed."

Jace pulled both of his knives out of their sheaths. "I'll be fine," he said. "You two be careful." He turned around and started walking toward the first out of the small hoard, which was only about seven or eight feet away from him. He hadn't heard footsteps yet despite the fact that he'd gotten close enough to the first zombie, one that looked like he would have been in his early twenties if he'd been alive. "Hurry up," he barked as he slashed his knife upward, severing an outstretched arm. "We don't have all day!" He reared back and kicked the zombie in the stomach, causing it to stumble backward around the same time that its arm hit the ground.

As he moved forward to finish the walking corpse off, he heard the pitter-patter of footsteps rushing inside. He looked around as he drove his blade into the zombie's skull. As he wrenched it out, he counted the remaining company that he had to deal with. Ten or so of them were still stumbling around, and there was no telling what would show up by the time that he was finished. He sighed as he stepped over the first body; it was going to be a long stop.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Tessa:<strong>_

Will insisted on entering the building first. He had a flashlight in one hand and his sword ready to swing in the other. She followed him closely, unsure of what else to do considering the fact that he had the light. The sun was slowly starting to sink behind the forest that was maybe a hundred or so yards behind the station. It was fairly dark inside and Tessa didn't want to stumble into anything dangerous.

Then again, trusting Will at the moment probably wasn't exactly safe; it was just necessary.

His footsteps echoed through the silent air. His light was flashing around the entire place so quickly that it made her dizzy, though he didn't seem to have a problem keeping up with it.

"Everything seems to be clear," Will muttered to her. "We need to go and check behind the counter for the kit."

"How can you tell?" Tessa demanded as she strained her eyes to see. Everything was so dark that it was practically impossible to make anything out. "There're aisles all around here, what if there're stragglers hidden behind them?"

"It's possible," Will said. She saw his silhouette nod, though he didn't seem too concerned about it. "We can take care of them if they come out and try to attack us. As for right now…if Jace says that something's bad, it's not exactly good."

The reminder of her sister knocked out in the car was enough to shut her up. Will took her silence as a confirmation and walked forward again. "Come on, Tessa," he said. "I don't think that you want to break your neck because you can't see." He turned around to look at her and said, "Why don't you take the flashlight?"

Before she could say anything, the long metal rod was in her hands. "Put your little letter opener away while you're at it," he nodded toward her knife. "I think I've got us covered."

"I—"

"If you say one more thing about not trusting me," Will said, his voice turning sharp for a moment, "I'm not going to be as patient. I'm in here to help Clary because she saved my cousin's life. I know and respect that you're just trying to be protective of her, but this is ridiculous."

She scowled at him, though she had a feeling that he couldn't see her face anyway. Her cheeks were burning and she felt as though she was a scolded child. She just nodded curtly and shoved her knife back into her holster. She thought she heard Will mutter something about women under his breath, but she couldn't be entirely sure. _Men!_

She kept the flashlight trained at their feet as they moved toward the counter top. Miscellaneous items, such as cans, molded food in packaging, and plastic bottles filled with different soft drinks were scattered across their walking path. She knew that if she hadn't had the light, she would have fallen. Part of her wanted to thank Will for his foresight, but another, way larger, part of her was too stubborn.

They made it to the counter quickly and she stepped forward, walking past him so she could shine the light over the cash register and down behind the barrier. What she saw caused her stomach to churn. She literally turned around, feeling her stomach heaving, and hurled on the floor.

"What is it?" Will demanded. His voice was a bit louder than was necessary and thanks to that, she didn't have to answer. There was an inhuman moan from behind the register and she heard the sound of the floor creaking. Slowly she stood back up, her stomach still rolling, and turned the light back to the counter. "I figured you'd have a stronger stomach than that," Will remarked tauntingly.

"Shut up," Tessa snapped, not in the mood. She grabbed her knife out of her pocket just as Will walked forward. The zombie mindlessly walked toward them, only to be pushed back by the counter. It moaned out a protest as it tried to move toward them a second time.

"Not very bright," Will mused. He didn't wait for her to answer; he simply brought his sword around and slashed it across the creature's neck, severing its head from its body. She heard two soft and wet thumps as the dismembered head and body hit the ground. "Tessa," Will said quietly, his taunting tone gone from his voice. "If you want to go outside and wait that'll be fine—"

"That's not why I got sick," she told him impatiently. She kept her flashlight trained on the countertop. "It's what's behind there," she explained, her voice suddenly quiet and weak. The thought of what she saw made her stomach churn again and she was glad that she hadn't eaten too much that morning.

Will's form snapped back to the counter almost immediately. "What did you see?" his voice was quiet, and Tessa could tell that he was afraid.

"I-it was eating a child," she said _with blond hair_, her voice quavering slightly. That was just a little too close to her brother, who they hadn't seen since the day of the breakout. For once she was slightly glad that Clary was knocked out in the truck; she had no idea how her sister would have taken it. She could see the gory scene in her head and it made her tremble slightly, all of the crimson that was lying around the body had been shiny and fresh. Whoever the child was, he must have just run in here to hide from the undead.

Will nodded, his shoulders slumping forward slightly; he clearly didn't like the idea of a kid dying such a violent death. "Okay," Will said; his voice was a strained calm. "I'm going to have to go behind there and see if a kit is back there. Why don't you hand me the flashlight and walk back outside and see if Jace needs anymore help?"

"I—"

"I'm going to have to put it down before it comes back to life," Will said. Tessa swallowed and looked at him, feeling as though she was about to hurl. "I don't want to do that when you're in here."

"I'm not weak," she defended herself, suddenly feeling ashamed for vomiting on the floor. "I can take care of myself."

"This isn't about taking care of yourself," Will told her. "I barely know you and I can already tell that you're far from weak. Please just go and wait outside."

Tessa didn't say another word. She just reached over and handed him the flashlight. He took it silently and looked at her, as though waiting for her to go away. She took the hint and turned around, walking out feeling weak and useless.

Jace was rounding up the last of the stragglers maybe twenty feet from the entrance of the station. He had a smile on his face and his golden eyes were lit up as though he was having the time of his life. He was having fun fighting zombies. It was a preposterous thought that she couldn't fathom.

She walked toward him tentatively, realizing that he could slip up and accidentally impale her with one of his long knives in the heat of the moment. She saw that there were maybe three left, but as she got closer to him, she got a view of the side and back of the station.

"Hello, Tessa!" he shouted cheerfully as he turned to the side to decapitate a zombie in a muumuu. "Is dear cousin Will being stubborn?"

Tessa nodded in confirmation taking her knife out as she stepped up to her first opponent. It swung a hand clumsily at her, she step-sided it and as it was turning to try and come after her again, she drove her knife into its temple. She pulled it out and said, "Judging from your tone, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he's like this most of the time."

"You get used to it," Jace replied. "Of course, stubbornness is one of the many flattering Herondale traits."

"Is that his last name?" Tessa asked, realizing that she didn't know his and that they didn't know hers.

"Yeah, Jace and William Herondale at your service."

She felt a hand grab at the back of her shirt and didn't even look as she drove her knife over her shoulder. Whatever had latched on to her fell to the ground, taking her knife with it and tearing a large hole in the fabric, much to her annoyance.

Jace whistled and said, "Damn, remind me never to sneak up on you!" Tessa turned around and ducked down to hastily retrieve her weapon. She didn't bother replying to Jace; though she had a feeling what he said was meant as a compliment.

She started to stand up, but heard a strange whistling sound. She yelped at the noise and dropped to her knees again immediately. She looked up and saw that Jace only had one knife in his hand, and was looking past her with a small frown.

"Looks like I accidentally missed one," he remarked before turning around as a large and rather fat zombie stumbled into his striking range.

Tessa turned and saw with a thudding heart that a zombie that used to be an elderly woman in a tattered floral dress had been maybe a centimeter of taking a bite out of her calf. She now had a large knife sticking out of her skull. Jace's knife. He'd saved her life.

She sighed in relief as she pushed herself back to her feet and grabbed his knife and her own as three zombies came stumbling her way. She saw that they were still trickling out from behind the gas station, and was worried about how many more there could be. It didn't matter, though; she would keep fighting them off until Will got out with the supplies to help Clary.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Will:<strong>_

He hadn't wanted to be so rude to Tessa when he told her to leave, but she was so stubborn that being curt and frank with her seemed to be the only way to get her to understand. She didn't like people sugarcoating anything for her, that he could already tell and it was a trait that he respected, but it was also one that made me want to pull his hair out of his scalp at the same time. As he watched her walk out, the only thing that he could really think was that he was glad that they were only going to the colony together, after she was there they wouldn't have to see too much of each other. If he had to be around her and her argumentative personality all 24/7, he would probably have some sort of mental break down and throw himself into a crowd of bloodthirsty zombies. Especially if her sister was anything like she was, which was very likely.

He vaulted himself over the counter with ease and landed nimbly on the other side, his light shining on the ceiling for a moment before he steadied himself and was able to look down. He immediately had to look away from the carnage, grimacing as he took in shallow breaths from his mouth and released them from his nose. Tessa really hadn't been overdramatic when she'd hurled; his own stomach felt a little queasy.

The boy only looked to be around seven years old. His eyes were shut tightly and Will could see that his fists were still clenched in death. The blond hair on top of his head looked like it was the same shade as one of his friends back at the colony, though it was smeared in blood so badly that it was pretty impossible to tell for sure.

Of course, the rest of the boy's body was pretty indistinguishable. It was torn apart and a lot of it was missing. Will purposely adverted his eyes, not wanting to know the full extent of the carnage in detail. He didn't know if he would cry, which was not exactly manly, or puke as Tessa had. Instead, he just looked at the clenched eyes of the child as he walked toward him. He saw that he was beginning to move around slightly; the poor guy had already turned, which begged the question: how long had they been feeding on him? Will swallowed back that thought along with the bile that was starting to come up his throat. He felt so sick.

"I am so sorry," he told the child just as he opened up its blank and deadened blue eyes. Then he brought his sword down, ending the child's second life before it had really begun.

He sighed and stepped over the child, pulling his sword out of his head as he went. There was a dusty white box shoved in the corner at the far end of the counter. He rushed forward and all but jumped on it. He yanked it up and saw a huge red cross on the outside. He plopped it on the counter and flicked the rusted locks open. The hinges creaked as the old box open, but Will sighed in relief as he spotted what looked to be fresh and clean supplies.

He closed it, earning another loud creak. He let his flashlight shine forward, and flinched. There was a straggler stumbling toward him at what looked like a limping jog. He swore at the feeling of adrenaline that was rushing through him from the fright and brought his sword around decapitating the body before it could make it to the counter. He jumped forward and pushed himself over the wood again, hitting the ground just after the body. He reached over and grabbed the kit before rushing out of the store.

Part of him wanted to take the boy and bury him, though he had no idea if he would even have the stomach, and another, much more logical part, knew that there were probably millions of boys out in the world that looked just like him that had suffered the same fate. Burying him would change nothing. Besides, they had to get Clary fixed up, and sitting around burying a body was going to get her killed, which might make Tessa lose it and kill him and Jace.

"Let's go!" Will shouted over the moans and groans of maybe twenty limping zombies. Tessa and Jace seemed to be backing up little by little, taking out three or four with every inch that they gave.

"Where are they all coming from?" Will demanded.

"I don't know," Jace snapped as he decapitated a zombie in a sundress. "Are you going to help or just stand there like chopped liver?!"

"We need to go!" Tessa cried as she ducked under a clumsy swing of an arm and stabbed the man in the business suit in the temple. "If we keep this up, we're going to get hurt and then we're not going to be able to help Clary!"

"Fine!" Jace relented kicking out with the flat of his foot at a zombie with a long and curly beard that was halfway ripped off his face, and had on what looked like hunting gear for clothes. "Let's go then!"

"I'll get in the back and—"

"No," Jace said, his voice insistent, "I've got her!"

"Jace knows everything, it's one of his annoying qualities," Will said. "He's quite good with first aid.

Simultaneously, Jace and Tessa both turned around and sprinted toward the truck. Will began running there as well and was in the driver's seat before they were halfway there. He was fishing around in his jeans pocket as Tessa jumped in the passenger's seat. "I've got the keys," she told him, pulling them out impatiently as Jace closed the back door.

"Not this one," Will replied pulling out the truck key from his pocket and starting the vehicle. "Sorry, Tess, but mistrust goes both ways."

He saw her grey eyes hardening as he put the truck in drive and pressed down on the gas so hard that the wheels skidded on pavement for a few moments before gaining enough traction to move them forward. They were off like a shot just as the first zombie hit the cab of his truck with their hands. "Don't screw up the paint job!" Will cried in protest; it wasn't as though he could go and get it fixed up anymore.

"You had the truck key the whole time, you lying son of a bitch!" Tessa snapped. Her voice hit a high note that almost made him flinch; he suppressed the urge.

Instead he simply shrugged and replied. "What guarantee did I have that you weren't just going to steal my beautiful ride and leave us as bait for the stragglers? You think so little of me, so clearly it wouldn't have weighed too heavily on your conscience to do it."

She was silent, and Will knew that he'd gotten her. "I'm not a monster," she told him coldly. "I wouldn't have left you there to be eaten alive."

Will remembered her reaction to the child. He grimaced as he pulled back on to the interstate before looking back over at her and nodding. "I know that now."

He felt anger simmering off her in waves, but it wasn't as bad as when she'd first seen the key. Will was right and she knew it no matter how much she didn't like it. She could be mad at him all she wanted to, but it was because he was telling the truth that she was so upset.

They rode in silence after that, the only sounds that could be heard were their breaths, Jace's infrequent curses, and the sound of scraping and clipping as Jace cleaned Clary's wound.

This was officially the worst road-trip ever.

* * *

><p><strong>As far as road trips go, this one does seem to be rather sucky. I just wanted to clarify something: the only thing that turns someone in this story is a bite; a scratch only makes the person ill. <strong>

**I'm going to try and make it to where I update on the weekends, but I'm awful with scheduled writing, so you never know! Feel free to leave any complaints, comments, or concerns in the review box, and I will see to them. If you want to see more of something, feel free to let me know. And I want to know: how do you think Clary's going to react to waking up, and who do you think she should wake up around? Tessa, Jace, Simon, Will, Magnus, Isabelle, or Alec?**

**Hopefully this holds you off until next time!**


	3. Never Live in One Place

_**Chapter Three: Never Live in One Place**_

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Clary~<strong>_

When she regained consciousness the first time, she felt sore, sick, and scared all at the same time. It was admittedly terrifying. She was laying on something very soft and very plush, but her mind couldn't really hold on to that because of the pain that was wreaking havoc in her body. She heard noises very vaguely in her ears, but it wasn't anything that she was able to distinguish. Her eyes were still closed and she really didn't have the energy to open them, though she knew that it was probably dangerous for her to remain so still for so long and not know where she was.

Instead of looking around, she figured that maybe she could try and tune into whatever those noises were and figure out where she was that way. It only took a little bit of effort to focus on it, and she realized that it was voices…arguing voices.

"We don't have time for you to sit around and look at the newbie all day, Jace!" a girl's voice snapped. _Jace_, her mind immediately flashed with an image of a smirking blond boy with golden eyes. It was that guy she'd seen in Wal-Mart. She didn't know who the girl was, however.

"I just got back, anyway, Isabelle!" Jace's voice came out sharp; it wasn't anything like how he'd spoken to her. He was obviously either angry or annoyed. "Today would qualify as my day off anyway!"

"And you're choosing to spend it with some random girl instead of your best friend?" she demanded. "Imagine how Alec feels!"

"This _random_ girl that you're talking about," Jace said coldly, "saved my life."

"We've all done that before," Isabelle remarked impatiently. "I don't see why—"

"You all know me; we're friends," Jace informed her, sounding very impatient. "She could have pushed me _into_ the zombie and ran away, saving her own skin. Instead, she pushed me out of the way and almost got herself killed." There was a moment of silence between them before Jace said in a low voice, "Excuse me for wanting to show a little gratitude. If Alec really has that much of a problem with it, then he can come up here and talk to me about it himself."

"You know he won't!" Isabelle exclaimed. "He's going to think that you've chosen this girl over him."

"For the love of God, Iz," he groaned. "When you told me that Alec was gay, I was completely okay with it. When you told me that Alec had a crush on me, I went to him myself and we talked it over. I explained to him that he needed to move on because I don't swing that way; he told me that he was cool with it. We're best friends and that's it. I'm not his mother and I'm not going to step on eggshells around him to make sure that his feelings aren't hurt." She heard a few footsteps as Jace walked toward Isabelle. "Why don't you tell him to go and talk to Magnus, huh? He's been showing plenty of interest in him lately?"

"You're truly a piece of work, Herondale," Isabelle said to him coldly.

"Yeah," Jace snapped right back, "well so are you. I figured that you would at least be grateful that she saved my life; we are friends, after all."

"I am grateful!" Isabelle told him indignantly. "Don't you dare insinuate otherwise!"

"Then don't act as though you feel otherwise," he replied, his voice cool and calm.

Clary heard the sound of feet hitting tile floor and a door slam shut. After that, she didn't really hear anything else as unawareness took her over.

* * *

><p>The next time that she woke up, she felt a lot better. She wasn't hurting nearly as much, though her shoulder was still burning, and her stomach was churning slightly. All in all, much better than the torment that she'd gone through the last time that she'd come around. "My, my, my," a cheerful voice mused from somewhere around her, "looks as if Sleeping Beauty is waking up!"<p>

She didn't know who was calling her Sleeping Beauty, but she imagined that she looked more like a wicked witch than anything remotely elegant. She grunted as she forced her eyes to open, shielding them from the dim light. "Where am I?" she croaked, wincing at the gravelly sound of her own voice. Her throat felt as though a desert had formed inside of it and her tongue was terribly dry along with the rest of her mouth.

"Alicante," a voice to her right answered almost immediately. She slowly turned her head toward the noise and had to squint. Her eyes were still adjusting to the brightness and this man was reflecting light off his neon clothes, making everything impossibly brighter. She blinked harshly and when she opened her eyes again, she was able to see the guy beside her.

He was smiling at her with a bright smile, his hair was spiky and she wondered if the strands would hurt if touched. His eyes were slanted slightly, hinting at some kind of oriental descent. She saw a hint of eyeliner, and if she wasn't mistaken, there was glitter in his hair. Either he was gay, or the people around here were a lot different than what she was used to.

"My name is Magnus," he said as he realized that she wasn't going to fill the empty silence. She had so many questions flying through her head that she was unable to speak because she wasn't sure which one she should ask first. So she simply latched on to the piece of information he'd just handed her and ran with it.

"Magnus," she finally said; her voice was still rough.

He frowned at her and reached over to a small wooden nightstand right beside her bed. He grabbed a red solo cup and reached out to hand it to her. "You must be thirsty; I hear near-death experiences will do that to you."

She smiled at him gratefully as she took the glass from him and raised it to her lips. The water tasted stagnated and was lukewarm, but it was still the best tasting thing that'd passed over her tongue in years. She sighed in relief as she lowered the now empty cup. "Thanks," she said, sounding more like herself instead of a frog. "Your name is Magnus; why does that sound familiar?"

That was when she remembered the conversation that she'd accidentally woken up to between Jace and a girl named Isabelle. Jace had mentioned Magnus liking some guy named Alec. So he was gay after all.

"I don't think I've ever met you," he confided. "Redheads tend to stand out in my mind."

"No," she shook her head before vaguely saying, "I think I remember Jace mentioning your name."

Magnus nodded his head. "I'm the medical assistant around here," he informed her. "I'm here at the moment to make sure that you're sane, okay, and not turning into a flesh-eating monster. You seem to completely pass my exam." He smiled at her, letting her know that it was just a joke. "I imagine that you have a lot of questions, I'll try and answer them all." He gestured to the room around them, "You're in a bedroom of one of the larger homes in the neighborhood; it's where all of the newbies stay until they get situated in to the community. Your sister, Tessa, is being given the grand tour by William Herondale. From what I've heard, you didn't meet him in the store, but he's Jace's cousin, and was the one that drove you here."

"What do you mean _community?_" Clary questioned, her eyebrow raised.

"It's really one of those see-it-for-yourself sort of things," he explained. "I guess I can try and tell you about it." He was silent for a moment, his eyebrows scrunched together in concentration as he tried to place his words carefully. "A bunch of us were in a group about a year back; we were half-starved and running from a small hoard of the undead. We found this community with wrought-iron fencing around the entire thing. The barriers weren't extremely tall, but they were strong and kept the dead a bay. We holed up here and realized that there was potential for the place. We went out and got supplies to fix the fences up, and, in just a little time, the barriers became more and more impenetrable." He smiled at Clary and spread his arms, as if showing off the room again, "eventually, we got this; a community of almost one hundred surviving people."

Clary was silent, slowly digesting the information. "One hundred?"

"Well, I think you and Tessa make like ninety-five, but I like to round up," he shrugged. "You look like your eyes are about to pop out of your admittedly pale head."

Clary felt herself flush slightly as she tried to burrow herself farther into the bed to get away from her embarrassment. "I just didn't think that…that…."

"You didn't think that there were that many people still around," Magnus finished for her, a wide smile. "Well we're here and it turns out that many of the attractive ones are the ones that are left."

"You mean like Jace?" Clary questioned before she could stop herself. She looked at Magnus with wide eyes and she felt as though her own eyes were about to pop out. Her face must have been on fire, but all Magnus did was laugh lightly.

"Yeah, like both Herondale boys, actually. It's a shame that they know how attractive they are," he said with a shrug, "they're both awfully arrogant."

"Yeah," Clary nodded, relaxing slightly. "I remember that very distinctively; it was rather annoying."

"You still saved him," Magnus pointed out.

"Error of judgment halfway to him," she informed him jokingly. "I actually meant to push him _into_ the zombie, but the good and selfless part of me decided to take over."

Magnus snorted and shook his head. "At least you admit that he's a pain in the ass, he has some people thinking that he's infallible." His tone turned a bit darker, and Clary had a feeling that he was talking about one specific boy. Alec, whoever that was. "I'll give him this, though; I had to make him leave and take a nap. He is obviously very grateful for what you did for him."

His expression lightened moments later and he was smiling again. "Well," he said. "I'm going to go and get Ragnor, he's the actual doctor around here, and then I'll go and grab your sister; I imagine that she'll be pleased to see you awake." He got to his feet and sauntered toward the door, different parts of his hair shining depending on where the light hit it. He shot her another smile just before he shut her door behind him.

Clary took a deep and calming breath as she tried to clear her mind, which was jumbled with so much unfathomable information that she was starting to feel dizzy all over again. She pushed it all away for the moment. Tessa was here and okay; she would wait until she talked to her sister to figure out how much she should be freaking.

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Jace~<strong>_

He had been sitting at Clary's bedside for the past five hours; he was exhausted, tired, and worn out. The thought of a bed was so enticing that he was actually daydreaming about it as he looked at her. Every time he would consider leaving to go and take a nap, he would see her shift slightly in her sleep and become excited, sure that she was about to wake up.

He jumped slightly when he heard a light knock on the door. It opened a moment later and he saw Magnus stick his head inside. He smiled tiredly at the older man. "How's it going, Bane?" he asked through a yawn.

"So, so," Magnus replied, stepping inside. "Why don't you go and take a nap?"

"I don't want to leave her alone," he confided. "Could you imagine waking up here when the last thing that you remember is arguing with an idiot before you save his life in an abandoned Wal-Mart?"

"She'd probably figure that said idiot brought her here," Magnus informed him. "Besides, you can't be your normal charming self when you're only halfway awake. How do you suspect to win her over when you look like a zombie yourself?"

"Two things, Bane," Jace said with a laugh. "First, I am not trying to win anyone over; second, I am way too sexy to ever look like a zombie."

Magnus rolled his eyes at Jace and said, "Whatever you say, Herondale. I still think that you should go and take a nap."

Jace sighed and looked back over at Clary, not wanting to argue with him since he'd just finished telling Isabelle off for being so cold.

"I'll even stay with her myself," Magnus offered. He was looking over at Clary with something that resembled interest. "If she wakes up, I'll come and get you."

Jace looked back up at Magnus, his willpower weakening slightly at the promise. "You promise that you—"

"I'm not going to leave her until she wakes up and I promise that I'll come and get you as soon as I can after she is lucid," he said, his tone completely serious. "Don't worry, Herondale." He was silent as he frowned at him suspiciously. "I've never seen you like this."

"A stranger's never been brave enough to risk their life for me when they don't even really trust me enough to tell me their name," he said quietly. "I just want to thank her."

Magnus nodded and smiled at him. "I'll make sure that you're able to," he assured him with a nod of his head. "Just go and sleep before someone stabs you."

Jace stood up and turned to look at Clary one more time before he looked over at Magnus again. "Look," he said quietly, feeling as though it was the only way that he was going to be able to get anything settled. "How…how are things going between you and Alec?"

Magnus' face darkened slightly for a moment before he patched the look up and just gazed at him neutrally, his arms crossed as he walked fully into the room. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I care about him and want him to be happy," Jace replied without missing a beat. "He isn't going to be happy if he keeps pining after me, and I know that you care a lot about him in ways that I don't, and I figured that he might move on from me if you were there."

"We would be great," Magnus replied, his tone a bit colder than before, "except that he's still pining after you. I'm not giving my all into anything when I know that he's in love with someone else."

"As much as I normally don't care," Jace said with a frown, "why are acting as though it's my fault? I told him that it was useless because I don't like guys. I have Isabelle on my ass because apparently he feels as though I'm going to completely shove him out of my life. I'm pushing for you guys to get together just as much as you are!"

"Calm down," Magnus told him sharply, his eyes flickering to the side. Jace knew that he was looking at Clary's bed. "I was just saying that he's still in love with you. Maybe he thinks that you might change your mind one of these days, or something."

"Well, I'm not," he said. "I'm going to have to talk to him again, clearly, but I figured that maybe if I have to hurt his feelings, you could be there to try and make him feel better."

"We'll see," Magnus said with a slight nod of his head. "As for right now, you need to go to sleep."

Jace gave one curt nod before he left the room. He walked down the long, tiled pathway almost mindlessly and when he got to the staircase at the end, he went down them. He probably could have chosen one of the twenty rooms that were inside of the huge mansion, but decided against it; he wanted his own bed in his own room. The stairs ended at the end of a dark hall in the first floor. He silently walked toward the small bit of light that was shining under the door at the end; it was the living room, which held the door that would get him outside.

He saw the familiar head of messy black hair that could only be his cousin, walking out of one of the smaller buildings on the street. It was the mess hall. He would have stopped to say hello, but he didn't know if he really had it in him to hold a conversation with anyone. Alec wasn't normally this hateful toward anyone, let alone a girl that was knocked out from saving Jace's life. He had a feeling that Isabelle, being the concerned sister that she was stuck her nose into the situation and took more from it than there was to see.

He didn't know Clary well enough to think anything romantically about her; he'd literally had a three minute conversation with her before she'd saved his life. It wasn't as though he was about to bust out a wedding ring.

He was annoyed and the fact that he even had to think about all of this was making him even more so. He finally reached the first house on the street before the gate began. He walked into the living room and saw two people sitting inside. Both had matching shades of pitch black hair. One was Alec and the other was Isabelle. They looked up at him as he closed the door, but Jace just ignored them and walked past their couch and down the hallway. His sweet relief was the first door to the right.

His room was immaculate as always, but he hardly noticed as he collapsed on to his mattress with a soft groan of contentment. Not five seconds later, the sweet relief of unconsciousness claimed him.

* * *

><p><em><strong>~Tessa~<strong>_

The town was the miracle of all miracles. Will was showing her around, introducing her to almost everyone that walked by, Charlotte, Henry, Jessamine, Jordan, Maia, Bat, and the list went on and on and on, most of the names and faces blurring together; she was sure that she would never remember them all.

"You look as though you're about to have a coronary," Will commented. He paused and leaned against the wall of an old hotel building. She could faintly read the sign, _Alicante Inn_. "Tess," Will said loudly.

She jumped and looked back down at him, smiling apologetically. "Sorry," she said. "I'm just a little distracted."

"I can tell," he replied smartly. "If it's Clary, we can go back and see her, but I figured that you'd want a bit of a distraction."

"It's not that," she assured him, still not entirely sure of how to take his kindness. "This is just a lot to take in. I haven't seen a new face in over a year and now I've seen over fifty in the past ten minutes. It's just a bit overwhelming."

Will grimaced slightly at her statement, his blue eyes flashing guiltily. "Sorry," he said, sounding completely earnest. "I didn't really think about that." He rubbed his hand across the back of his neck, seeming uncomfortable. "It was awfully inconsiderate of me."

"It's okay," she said, looking at the ratty building behind him, unable to really handle the electric gaze that he was giving her. They stood in an awkward silence, him regarding her silently and shamelessly with his arms crossed over his chest, and her looking past his shoulder at the filthy wood of the building that he was leaning on, trying not to flush. Where was her fight now? This was still the same boy that had lied to her about the keys, whether he was giving her the grand tour or not!

She mentally swatted that thought out of her head, knowing that she didn't have a right to judge him for that. She might have been very forward with her feelings of mistrust, but she should have figured that he wasn't going to completely trust her right off the bat, especially when she hadn't given him a reason to. She inhaled, about to suggest that they go back to Clary, because clearly a tour wasn't going to work with just him when her head was all over the place, when she heard footsteps hurriedly walking toward them.

Will's eyes flicked off her and looked past her head. His eyes lit up slightly and he grinned. "James!" he said.

Tessa turned around and spotted a man with dark hair, a tanned complexion, and dark, slanted eyes that hinted at a Chinese descent. He was walking toward them with a small, almost shy smile on his face. Immediately Tessa knew that this guy was a lot more reserved than Will Herondale, and yet they were grinning at each other as though they were best friends. As preposterous as the thought was, it was still a possibility.

"Hello, Will," James said, coming to a halt a few feet to the right of Tessa. His arms were crossed as he turned to look at Tessa with a polite smile. He held out his hand and said, "You'll have to forgive William, he lacks any proper social skills in any setting." Tessa uncertainly took his hand and allowed him to shake hers. "My name is Jem Carstairs."

"Tessa," she said. "Tessa Fray."

"It's very nice to meet you, Tessa," he replied with a smile, releasing her hand.

"You too," she said still unsure of what to make of the newcomer.

He turned to look at Will, who was watching them with something akin to amusement. "Might as well wipe that smug look off your face," Jem told Will. "I've come out here with a message."

Will frowned and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Tessa felt her heart beating a bit more quickly now; what if his message was about Clary. "Luke wants to see you and Ms. Fray, here, in his office."

She saw Will nod in understanding, the smile on his face truly gone. Jem backed away from them with an encouraging nod in her direction as though he could tell that she was nervous. "Don't worry, Tessa. Luke won't bite you…though Will and Jace, on the other hand…" he was silent as he simply shrugged.

"In my defense," Will called to Jem's retreating figure, "Luke thinks I'm certifiable!"

Jem turned around once he was on the other side of the road and replied just loud enough for them to hear, "If you guys didn't act so crazy, people might actually buy that you're sane!"

Will rolled his eyes at his chuckling friend and turned to look at Tessa with a small smile. "Well, Ms. Fray, would you like to meet our mighty leader?"

"Would it make a difference if I said no?" Tessa questioned.

"It wouldn't," Will informed her with a grin. "You're already learning how things work around here."

Tessa just looked back unsmilingly, and Will held his hands in front of him in surrender. "Fine, I won't joke around anymore. There's no reason to worry though; Luke's not a bad guy. Actually, he's one of the better people around here. He earned my respect they hard way, saving my life more times than I can count."

Tessa nodded and looked at the street around her. "So where is his office?"

"It's time to go to the institute," he replied almost immediately.

"What's the institute?" she questioned curiously.

It turned out that the institute was the same building that Clary was sleeping in. The fact that she was a bit closer to her sister, knocked out or not, made her feel a bit better.

Will led her inside, but instead of heading to the stairwell, they stayed on the bottom floor of the mansion. He walked through the living room, which had different posters strewn over the walls, as if the inhabitants were trying to keep the place as homey and familiar as possible. There was a pair of doors on the far end of the living room from the front door and that was where Will moved to. Tessa followed him on his heels, kind of glad that no one else was around; meeting people was beginning to feel like too much. If she could find a way to get out of it, she wouldn't be meeting Luke.

Will got to the door and grabbed one of the fancy brass knobs before he turned around and looked at her with a confident smile.

"Ready to meet him?" Will asked. Tessa didn't have enough time to answer, because he'd already twisted the knob and pushed the door open. Sitting at a desk, looking down at a dingy piece of paper in the center of the wood was a large man. He had scars all over his exposed arms. He looked up, showing a kind face, and a smile that was halfway hidden behind a beard that was the same color of brown as his curly hair.

"Hello," he greeted her, "you must be one of the new girls." He pointed to a seat against the wall of the office. "Sit," he suggested. "I only have a few questions to ask you and then I need to talk to Mr. Herondale on his own."

Tessa nodded and followed Will inside. There were two office chairs against the wall, Will walked over and occupied the one farthest from the door, so Tessa settled next to him and crossed her legs at her ankles as she waited to Luke to begin.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Will:<strong>_

Luke asked her the normal questions: name, age, abilities, skills, intelligence levels, anything and everything that could be used to help the town. Will had heard the interrogation so many times that he just zoned out, wondering what Luke could possibly want to talk to him about.

His last question was what brought him back to life. "Is there a part of the town that you would prefer to stay in once Clary is better?"

Tessa straightened up slightly. "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know if we're staying."

Luke looked at her with a raised eyebrow from behind his glasses. He didn't show any other expression, though, so Will had no idea what was going on underneath all of that hair. "That's odd," he mused. "Not many people try to leave here, but if you want to go, we certainly won't stop you. I hope you'll stay until your sister is healed, though. I hate the thought of her venturing out in her condition."

"Of course, sir," Tessa replied almost immediately. "I'll contribute anyway that I can while she's under your care. You don't know how grateful I am that you took us in."

"She saved one of ours," Luke replied with a shrug. "It's only what's right."

Tessa smiled at him.

"I hear from Magnus," Luke told her, "that Clary is awake. I imagine that you would like to go and see her."

Tessa nodded rapidly, getting to her feet. She smiled at him and Luke smiled in return. "You know where her room is, right? I just need a few minutes alone with Will here."

She nodded at Luke, but looked back at Will uncertainly, as if asking him what she should do. He nodded his head to her and gestured for her to leave with a swipe of his hand. She nodded silently and walked out. Will got up and closed the door behind her. He turned around, fully prepared for a tongue-lashing about his inability to keep his younger cousin out of danger on raids, or for bringing the two girls into their camps without any warning. He got neither.

Luke was looking up at him tiredly, and only said three words. Three words that confused him to no end, but he obeyed all the same. "Get me Jonathan."

* * *

><p><strong>So, Clary and Jace finally meet in the next chapter…well, she'll be able to get more than three words out of her mouth before getting knocked out. Why could Luke want Jonathan? If anyone has any guesses, I'd love to hear them!<strong>

**I'm so sorry that I only got back to a couple of people's reviews. I haven't had time to do anything over the week; I was lucky that I managed to type this chapter up. I hope you liked it regardless, and I promise that I'll try my best to talk to you all before next time!**


	4. Never Trust Coincidences

**I'm pretty sure that I replied to all of you. *Fingers crossed that I didn't accidentally miss someone.* Thank you to all who read, reviewed, followed, or favorite on the last chapter; you're all awesome!**

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter Four: Never Trust Coincidences<em>**

* * *

><p><strong><em>~Clary~<em>**

She was so bored and anxious to see a familiar face that she was about to get up and look around herself, sick or not, when the door opened. The head that peeked in was not Tessa or Magnus, who were the only two people that she found remotely familiar. It was a gorgeous guy with a mane of curly, golden blond hair and wide golden eyes. She recognized him, of course; no one would ever forget a face like that.

It was Jace Herondale, the guy that she'd saved from a zombie; the entire reason that she was even in that room. Her stomach fluttered slightly as he walked all the way in; part of her was pleased that he'd bothered to remember that she even existed, let alone come in to see if she was okay…assuming that was the reason that he was eying her concernedly. He didn't say a word as he shut the door behind him and moved with unconscious graceful movements toward the armchair that was pulled up to her bedside.

He sat without invitation and examined her unabashedly. She looked back at him curiously, feeling more than a little self-conscious. His gaze was strong and piercing, as though he was attempting to look directly into her soul.

"So your name is Clary," he muttered, finally looking down at his hands, which were clasped together as he leaned on his elbows, which were propped on either of his thighs.

Clary nodded silently and found herself looking down as well.

"I have to admit," Jace said, his eyes flickering back up to meet hers, "that the lengths that you went to keep you identity a secret from me was a bit far." He had a small smile on his face, just to let her know that he wasn't exactly serious about what he was saying. "I mean you don't have to play hard to get."

Clary smiled at him, appreciating his humor after everything that had happened. "I didn't mean to be so rude at the store," she admitted. "I just…."

"Don't trust strangers," he finished for her. Much to her surprise, he sounded very understanding. "Your abrasiveness prepared me for your sister's."

"I hope she wasn't too harsh," Clary said, all too aware of her sister's tendency to overreact to things.

"Nah," Jace said casually with a shrug of his shoulders. "She only tried to murder my cousin, Will."

Clary grimaced at his revelation and looked down as she mumbled an apology on Tessa's behalf.

"No need to apologize," Jace said quickly. "She didn't hurt him; he has a rather thick skull. Anyway, no doubt that Will said something to her before I met her that would have ensured that he deserved what he got."

"So he's not angry?" Clary asked weakly.

"Only at me for letting you get hurt," Jace replied easily. "Tessa, on the other hand, is completely forgiven. He's even out right now giving her a tour of the town."

"I thought that Magnus was going out to get them," Clary said with a frown.

Jace shrugged, seeming honest with his ignorance. "I don't know; he came into the house that I stay in, and knocked loudly on my door maybe ten minutes ago. I have to admit that he woke me from an amazing sleep."

"Why did you want him to wake you up?" Clary asked before she could stop herself. She mentally cursed, unsure of how that question would sound to him; hopefully it didn't sound too stupid.

"I wanted to talk to you," he said. His tone wasn't harsh, but she could tell that he figure that the reason should have been very obvious. "You did save my life, after all."

"Oh," she said lamely. She had no idea how she was supposed to answer to that.

"I'll make you a promise," he said after a moment, not really seeming put-out by her lack of response. "Tomorrow, when you're dismissed from bed-rest, I'll take you on a grand tour of the town and all of its amazing perks. I doubt that even Will can give as good of a tour as I can." He was silent, looking at her expectantly; his pretty golden eyes were hypnotic and she found herself slowly nodding.

"Good," he said with a smile. "I'm going to need a way to thank you for saving my life, and I guess that's a start."

"It's not—"

"Don't be ridiculous," he said, cutting her off abruptly. "It's a very big and important deal; it is my life after all." There was the blunt arrogance that she'd admittedly been looking for. He smiled at her, obviously expecting a reply. She would happily have given him one, but the door flew open before she could get a word out of her mouth.

Tessa rushed in, a wild look in her grey eyes. She smiled more widely than Clary had ever seen her smile and quickly walked forward. "Thank god!" her sister exclaimed, making to her bed. Clary sat up and they embraced tightly.

"I'm so sorry," Clary muttered to her quietly. "I never should have run away from you like that; it was so stupid of me."

"I know," Tessa said quietly. "Don't worry, though; everything's going to be fine."

She backed up and Clary realized that Jace was still with them and flushed slightly at the look of discomfort that he was trying to hide.

He pushed himself out of the chair and muttered, "I guess I can just…" he silently gestured toward the doorway.

"There's no need," Tessa said quickly. "If you wouldn't have saved her life with the antibiotics while we were traveling, then she wouldn't be here."

Clary frowned slightly at this revelation and turned to look at Jace, hoping that he could provide an explanation that Tessa wasn't providing.

"It wasn't that big of a deal," Jace shrugged. "Seriously nothing to really get too worked up over."

"Don't be ridiculous," Tessa said. Clary looked over at Jace with a raised eyebrow, knowing all too well that her sister wasn't one for overemphasizing anything. It must have been a pretty big deal. "She would have died before we got here."

Jace smiled over at her sheepishly; it was obvious that he didn't really like gratitude being shown to him all that much. She was surprised by that revelation; he was very arrogant, so he probably should have liked any attention.

"Thank you," she said sincerely, giving him a weak smile. He turned it with an even weaker one of his own and shook his head.

"I think I owed you one," he informed her with a one-shouldered shrug. "It was kind of my fault that you were knocked out."

"I'd say we're even now," Clary said with a half-smile.

"Hardly," he said. "I'm still in your debt, and I'm not about to cheat you out of that."

"It's not that—"

"It's a big deal to me," he cut her off. "Don't think you're going to be able to weasel your way out of my repayment. It's my life, and I want to repay you for saving it."

Clary looked at him exasperatedly and caught a glimpse of desperation cross his features. It made her bite back any argument that she may have had and nod her head. "Fine, Jace," she said. "I won't try and stop you."

He gave her a stronger smile this time and said, "Smart girl," before he walked out of the open doorway and shut it behind him.

"This has to be the strangest group of people that I've ever met," Tessa told her earnestly as she moved to sit in the chair that Jace had just vacated. "They're all like this, so nice and they all really care about one another."

Clary was silent for a moment before saying, "I don't know what it is about this place, but I don't know if I trust it."

Tessa frowned at her. "You've only been in this room. How do you know if you can trust something that you've never seen?"

"It sounds so nice," Clary explained, hoping that her sister would understand. "Think about it, Tessa: the world's gone to hell and there's still a _town_ with almost one hundred people still alive."

"That's a good thing, Clary," Tessa said, patting her on the shoulder gently. "There're more people around than we thought. As much as I refuse to trust any of them, because they're strangers, it's still the kind of hope that we needed all along."

Clary wasn't feeling too hopeful at the moment; at best she was critical. "As amazing as the idea is, I still think that it's too good to be true."

"You think that something's corrupt here?" Tessa asked incredulously. "You think they're evil, or something?"

Clary thought back to Jace, the only person that she knew from the town. Tessa had seen more than her, but she could go off what she could tell by the attractive blond. "I don't think that they're evil," she replied. "I just don't think that it's going to last."

"They have really good fortifications," Tessa replied. "I'm not saying that we need to stay here. I talked to their leader of sorts; he told me that he won't force us to stay, but that we can stay here as long as we like."

"How long is that?" Clary questioned, unsure of what she wanted the answer to be.

"We have nowhere to be; there's no strict deadline to meet," Tessa replied with a shrug. "I guess we can stay with them until you're back on your feet completely. I know that you'll be off bed-rest soon according to Ragnor, but you're still going to need to get back all of your strength." She smiled at Clary and said, "Let's enjoy being safe for a couple of weeks, and then we can see where to go from there."

* * *

><p><strong><em>Jace:<em>**

He moved down the stairs at a leisure pace; he didn't want to go back to his house yet, certain that Isabelle and Alec would want to talk to him. He didn't really know where Will was, and he was certain that his nerdy friend Simon Lewis was out of the question as well. The poor guy had it bad for Isabelle and he figured that he would be somewhere within twenty feet of her at all times. Sometimes Isabelle annoyed him, especially when it came to Simon. She kept stringing him on, and he allowed her to have that hold on him, keeping him on a leash as he followed her around like a lost puppy.

He made it to the bottom floor, resigned to the boring plan of grabbing something to eat out of the mess hall. Maybe after he ate he would even volunteer to take someone's shift for patrolling the fences….

His thought trail wandered to a stop as he pushed through the living room door from the hallway. Luke's office door was open and two guys were standing just inside, blocking his view of the desk that he imagined that Luke was sitting behind. What was going on?

He walked toward Luke's door instead of the front door, allowing his boredom and curiosity to get the best of him. "Don't lie to me, Jon," he heard Luke snap from beyond the blond head of Jonathan, and the ink head of his cousin.

"I'm not lying," Jonathan said. His large frame tensed up, and Jace heard his tone quaver slightly, though not from anger. "My sister's are dead. My father told me that he saw them and my mother die in my own house. There wasn't anything that he could do for them." Jace could tell by just listening to Jon that he was telling the truth.

He abruptly pushed past Will and Jon and took a seat in one of the two chairs that were against the wall. The three occupants looked over at him for a moment before turning their attention back on one another. Apparently they didn't really care that he was there, not that it mattered.

Luke looked at Jon, who was staring back at him with his face contorted into a pained frown. Jace could see his deep green eyes flashing from sorrow, and his tanned complexion seemed a bit paler than normal, as if thinking about his past made him sick.

After a moment Luke's expression softened to one of understanding. "I'm sorry to hear about that," he said to Jon quietly. "Can you just do me a favor and tell me their names?"

"Clarissa and Theresa Fray," Jon muttered; his eyes cast down to the floor.

"Clarissa," Jace muttered. "Did she go by Clary?"

"Did Theresa go by Tessa?" Will demanded, looking at Jon with widened eyes.

Jon returned his cousin's gaze with a stunned one of his own. "How do you know that?"

"Because Luke wasn't lying," Will said, his lips curling in a smile. "Your sisters are upstairs."

Jonathan didn't wait for anyone to say anything else. He was standing there one second, and as soon as Jace blinked his eyes, he was already out of the doorway. A moment later, he heard the sound of running feet hitting the floorboards of the stairs. Will turned around and poked his head out into the living room with obvious interest.

Jace turned to look at Luke with a raised eyebrow. The bearded man looked back at him with an unsmiling face. "Why so gloomy?" Jace questioned. He had a feeling that it had something to do with Jonathan and the two girls upstairs.

Luke blinked and looked at him with something that looked to be boarder-line impatience. It was clear that he wasn't in a chatty mood. Jace couldn't really care less, but he knew that whatever was making him like this couldn't be good.

Luke finally gave up on their silent stare down, and put his face in his hands. "I'm not sure what those two girls being here is supposed to mean."

"I figured that it meant that they were lucky," Jace supplied smartly. Luke frowned at him, making it clear that his smart aleck comments were not appreciated in the least.

"Then what do you think it means," Will asked, turning back toward them. His blue eyes shone with curiosity and worry.

"I think it might mean trouble," Luke said. He was looking back and forth between Jace and Will.

"How?" Jace demanded. His heart was beginning to pick up its pace slightly and he was concerned that he'd made a mistake saving Clary's life.

"I don't think that they'll cause any harm," Luke clarified, as though he'd read Jace's mind. "I'm just a bit weary."

"Why?" Will asked. He moved to take the seat next to Jace's. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his lower thighs as he looked at Luke with utter concentration. Jace knew that he and his cousin were both trying to figure out what Luke meant by what he was saying.

Luke sighed. "You both are supposed to be some kind of geniuses," he took turns looking sharply at Will and Jace at different times. "It shouldn't be too hard for you to figure out. Just tell me how man coincidences have you seen? Think about it; this is a pretty big coincidence.

"So in most words," Jace concluded slowly. "You don't think this is a purely serendipitous moment."

"No," Luke replied. "Jonathan showing up here, I can almost understand. I knew his parents really well, so it was a coincidence, but not a big one. Then Clarissa and Theresa show up here as well not three months after Jon does," he frowned slightly and shook his head. "Something's going on here, and I want to know what."

* * *

><p><strong><em>~Tessa~<em>**

She and Clary had been sitting in silence for the better part of five minutes. Both were lost in their own thoughts, and it was relatively peaceful. Of course, nothing can last forever. Tessa was readjusting her position in the armchair, trying to get a little more comfortable, when the door slammed open.

"Tessa, Clary?" a deep voice sounded. She tensed up and turned around, looking at the newcomer. As soon as her eyes landed on his profile, her breath caught and her brain tried to process what was in front of her. She felt prickling behind her eyes despite the fact that she was still trying to figure out what was going on.

The first thing that she took in was tousled white-blond hair, and then the bright green eyes, which were widened and maybe just a little watery. He had tanned skin, and a much larger build on him than she remembered. The last time that she'd seen this boy was when he had been a gangly teen at the age of sixteen.

"J-Jon?" Tessa breathed, still struggling to make sense of what was happening. "You're supposed to be dead."

His opened mouth as if to answer, but just closed it instead, choosing to just grin at her and Clary. Before anyone could say anything else, he lurched forward and engulfed Tessa into a hug. He dragged both of them over to the bed, and she felt herself leaning backward a little before Clary's shoulder dug into hers. Both of them were bound together tightly as Jon forced them into a group hug. Tessa wasn't complaining, and neither was Clary. She hugged Jon back as tightly as she could and buried her face into his chest. She felt his cheek against her hair in the space where she and Clary were separated.

"How are you alive?" Jon asked, his voice muffled. "Dad told me that he saw you guys and mom get eaten alive by a hoard of monsters."

Tessa froze and pushed away from him slightly so that she could see his face. Clary did the same and Tessa saw tear tracks on her cheeks. No doubt she had the same on hers.

"How could dad have told you that?" Tessa questioned slowly. She felt Jon's arms drop and he took a step backward, running his fingers through his hair, making it more tousled than before. "You haven't seen him since the first day of the outbreak. He died over a year ago."

Jon shook his head. "No, he just died a few months ago. He told me that you guys and mom were killed by zombies and that there was nothing that he could have done to save you."

"When did you see him?" Clary asked, sounding as confused as Tessa felt.

"A little over a year ago," Jon admitted. "It was really lucky; dad and I happened to be in the same town and walked into the same drug store."

Tessa shook her head. "That's not possible," she looked over at Clary and then back at Jon. "We watched him and mom die with our own eyes."

"You think I'd lie about something like this?" Jon demanded. He sounded genuinely hurt. "What possible good would I have from lying? Think about it!"

"Let's just drop it for now," Tessa replied hastily. "We can figure this all out later, as for right now," she smiled at him, "let's just focus on the fortunate part of all this: we're back together."

Apparently they weren't really allowed to bask in their happiness for too long; the door opened without any warning a few minutes after Jon had closed it. The intruders were Will, Jace, and Luke. "Hello," he said politely to Clary. He walked over and held out his hand. She took it with her much smaller one and shook his tentatively. "I'm Lucian Greymark, but you can just call me Luke."

Clary smiled at him weakly and said, "Hello, I'm Clary."

He looked over at Tessa, as if to tell her that she was also a part of what he was about to say. "It's nice to meet both of you; it's been so long since we've had any newcomers that your arrival has shocked the town."

"Sorry if it was any inconvenience," Clary said hurriedly.

Will stepped in immediately and casted her a reassuring smile. "It wasn't any trouble at all. We needed something like this to happen. It reminds the people here that we aren't the only ones left, even though it feels like quite the opposite most of the time." He held his hand out to, "William Herondale, better looking cousin of Jace Herondale, at your service, ma'am."

Clary smiled at this and shook his hand. "Hello," she said. Tessa saw Will cast her a flirtatious wink, and then saw the tops of Clary's cheeks redden slightly.

Tessa saw Jace scowl slightly and then saw him not so gently shove his cousin out of the way. "Yeah, right, William, everyone knows that _I'm_ the better looking one. Just ask Tessa, after looking at your ugly mug all day, I'm sure that seeing my face is like breath of fresh air."

"More like a breath in a garbage dump," Jon butted in. "You're both equally hideous and you're probably going to give both of them nightmares."

Tessa eyed both Will and Jace appreciatively as subtly as she could. She wouldn't admit it aloud, but to herself she thought that if she was going to have a nightmare about either boy, it would be one that she would look forward to.

"Besides," Jon continued before either boy could interrupt, "I'm the best looking one in the entire town!"

That caused all three boys to start laughing loudly; even Luke cracked a smile at their antics. Tessa looked over at Clary, who was looking back at her with wide eyes. It was as if Tessa could read her thoughts: _Are all boys like this now?_ Tessa just silently shrugged, unsure of how to reply.

Luke looked over at Tessa, and for a moment she saw something flashing in his eyes. Before she could look at it closer and figure out what he was feeling, it was gone. "I talked to Ragnor before I came in," he said, looking around at the others. "He said that you were free to come off bed-rest tomorrow. I don't know if you two plan on staying—"

"We aren't sure what we're doing yet," Tessa said quickly.

"Well," Luke said, "choose what you want, there's no rush. Tomorrow, we can give Clary a tour and then introduce you all to the different jobs around here. You can see if you really enjoy one. It might help sway you one way or another."

Tessa and Clary both nodded, smiling widely. "Come on," Luke said, looking at everyone. "Let Clary rest; she needs to build her strength up if she's going to be walking around with us tomorrow."

Even one nodded silently and trooped outside. Tessa and Jon both trailed out last. She turned to look at Clary with a smile as she said, "The sooner you rest, the sooner tomorrow comes."

"Yeah," Jon added. "You get to hang out with your cooler older sibling then."

Tessa snorted and rolled her eyes; he certainly hadn't gotten rid of his bantering personality in the three years that they'd been separated. "Come on, you big oaf," she said pushing on his chest so that he was backing up and out of her room. "Let Clary rest."

"Still got that mothering attitude, I see," he said. She heard the obvious amusement in his voice and had to suppress a smile.

"Yes I do, little brother," she replied smartly. "You'd do well to remember that."

Jon smirked as he shut Clary's door. "Come on, big sister," he said, slinging an affectionate arm over her shoulders. "I know where I can snag some tea and coffee from; I think it's a good idea for us to get caught up."

Tessa wrapped an arm around his waist in return and together, they strode through the hallway and down the stairs. Will, Jace, and Luke were nowhere to be found, but she didn't really pay any heed to that, much too caught up in her new-found elation.

* * *

><p><strong><em>~Will~<em>**

He and Jace were both walking down the road away from the Institute in a companionable silence. As they parted ways from Jon and Tessa, who were apparently going to the Mess Hall to see if they could talk Bridget out of a cup of tea and a cup of coffee.

"What do you think of this?" Jace asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"I didn't know that my opinion meant so much to you," Will said sarcastically.

"It doesn't really," Jace said with a shrug. "I'm just asking you because I know that you think more like me than anyone else that I know."

"You mean that everyone around us thinks that we're overly arrogant?" Will translated.

"It isn't as though it's an unfounded arrogance," Jace replied with a shrug. "That's beside the point; I really want to know what you think."

"I don't know what to think," Will admitted after a moment of contemplation. "It's obvious that the girls were surprised to see Jonathan, and it's pretty obvious that Jon thought that they were dead. It didn't really look like they were acting."

"Good," Jace said in reply. "I was thinking the same thing."

"Do you think Luke is too?" Will questioned.

"No one ever knows what Luke's thinking," Jace pointed out.

"Jem might be able to find out," Will suggested. "He's very good a reading people."

"He's very good at reading_ you,_" Jace corrected him. "You're easy, though. He can try however; I find Jem to be very diplomatic."

"That's because you don't know the meaning of diplomacy," Will informed him only half jokingly. "You'd start a fight with the entire colony if you thought that you could win."

"No," Jace replied. "I'd only start a fight with the half that I didn't like, and dangle them outside for the stragglers to chase after. There's a difference. We've had this conversation before, William." The sad thing was that Will did remember talking to Jace about that very subject sometime in the past. He snorted at the vivid mental image that entered his mind of half the jerks around the town running and screaming for their lives.

"Come on," Will said, nudging him in the shoulder with his own. "Charlotte is in the office for patrolling shifts. I know you're as bored as I am. We can go and volunteer to take someone else's slot."

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, people! I would love to point out that I tried to upload this Saturday morning, but the server was down. Please do not shoot me! I hope that you liked the story so far, and I promise that the action is going to start picking up soon now that the foundation of the story has been laid. I hope that you all found this chapter interesting, and that the sibling reunion was a sweet one.<strong>

**Does anyone have any idea who the bad guy out of this story is, or do you have any idea of why Jon, Clary, and Tessa are all in the same town together after three years? Leave your guess in the review box below and make my day with your inquiries.**

**Oh, and the normal dialogue box for uploading didn't come up after FF decided to cooperate, so I had to copy and paste this. I don't know if it affected the formatting or not, but just know that I didn't do it!**


	5. Never Follow a Cute Herondale

_**~Clary~**_

It felt as though she hadn't been asleep for an hour before someone was shaking her awake. Jace was standing over her, grinning slightly as he said, "I've already got the okay from Ragnor. We can go any time you want."

"What time is it?" she mumbled drowsily, wanting nothing more than to turn around and burrow her head into her pillow a bit further. It was clearly too early for any of this.

"I don't really know," Jace mused. It was obvious that he didn't care. "Are you still tired? Because I can come back later, but I figured that you would want to look around before everyone is walking around. You haven't been around people in so long that I figured crowds might make you nervous."

Clary didn't say anything, unsure of what would come out of her mouth. That had to be the most thoughtful thing that she'd heard come out of Jace's mouth. Then again, she'd pegged Jace a pretty face and a thoughtless guy, nothing more. She didn't like to be wrong, but this one time, she had to admit that she was glad.

"That's very nice of you," she finally said. "I didn't know you'd put this much thought into just showing me around."

"That's where, you're wrong, Clary," Jace said with a sigh. He shook his head dramatically, his blond hair swishing slightly behind him. "It's not just _showing you around_, I'm trying to sell this place to you so you won't leave."

"That was…really sweet," Clary said slowly. She looked at him as she felt her face flush slightly. "Thank you."

"It's no problem," Jace replied with a shrug. "If we go right now, we can probably get finished before everyone wakes up."

Clary nodded silently and pushed herself off the bed. "Okay," she said, taking a step toward the door. "Let's go then."

* * *

><p>The town was amazing. It was huge and lined with a colossal wall all the way around. There were no moans of the undead, despite there being so many people in one spot, which should have been a ringing dinner bell. There were actual shops opened up, though Jace said there was no currency used. It was more of a bartering system, and that more often than not, she could probably get whatever she wanted from there by trading off a shift of patrolling the fence, whatever that meant.<p>

She was fascinated by the very idea of the admittedly worn buildings being used by so many people. "There're almost a hundred of them," she whispered to herself as she and Jace moved past the mess hall, and she saw a couple of middle aged people walk past wooden doors. She glanced over at Jace and saw that he was looking at her with a raised eyebrow. She flushed and looked down. "For the longest time, Tessa and I thought that we were the only people left." She amended herself after a moment, "Well, we thought we were the only _good_ people left."

Jace's expression changed to a smile and he nodded. "I can imagine so," he replied. "You…" he trailed off, as if he was calculating what he was saying. "You seem to have had an issue with strangers before."

"Yeah," Clary muttered after a moment, an image of her parents lying dead and mangled flashing through her head. "We did."

When Jace realized that Clary wasn't going to elaborate any further, he stuck his hands into his pockets and looked down the street. "Well," he said after a few seconds of admittedly awkward silence. "Here comes a strange group of three, indeed."

Clary followed his gaze and saw the ink hair of Will, the almost white hair of her brother, and the long, light brown locks of her sister. She smiled at them as they walked over. As soon as they were in hearing range, Jon spoke up. "Hello, little sister. Are you having fun on your grand tour?"

Clary nodded earnestly. She didn't realize how true the statement really was until she thought about it. She hadn't had _fun_ in so long that she didn't realize that it was what she was having when she was walking around and talking to Jace. His narcissism was a bit unsettling, but it was also amusing and something new. "It's amazing!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe that this is all really here!"

Jon's grin widened, as the trio stepped forward to merge with her and Jace, forming a group of five. He patted her on the back and replied, "I'm glad that Jace and Will found you guys." His expression turned a bit more serious after a moment and Clary saw that the others had the same look.

"I have a feeling that I missed something while I was cooped up in that room," Clary guessed. "I'm not sure what it was, but it'd be nice if someone would spill."

"It's not important right now," Tessa replied, cutting Jon off before he could get whatever he was going to say out of his mouth. "I figured that we could all get something to eat before we started whatever else they have planned for us today."

"Great idea, Tess," Will replied, casually throwing an arm around her shoulder. Clary looked at her sister with a raised eyebrow. Tessa blushed and stepped outside of his grasp, causing Will's arm to swing back to his side.

The guys all but ran into the mess hall, leaving Clary and Tessa to walk inside behind them. "He's like a child," Tessa told Clary lowly. "No matter how much I try and push him away and make a boundary, he just bounds over it like it's not there."

"I think it's cute," Clary replied with a smile. She looked over at her sister who was looking at her with a gaping mouth and rolled her eyes. "Come on _Tess_, it could be a lot worse."

Tessa flushed and muttered something about her shutting up as she sped up her pace, trying to put some distance between her and Clary. Clary smiled, it was a nice change to see her sister all flustered, and Will didn't seem like that bad of a guy…at least she hoped he wasn't that bad of a guy.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Jace:<strong>_

He was finally getting at what he'd been waiting for with the girls: to show them the wall. He, Will, and Jon all walked toward the wrought iron fencing that surrounded the interior of the camp and smiled winningly at Charlotte, who was looking down at her clipboard to see if they were scheduled to work.

"I don't see a Herondale until tomorrow," Charlotte said, pushing a piece of brown hair behind her ear as she looked up at them. She was a short woman with a pinched face and brown eyes. She was truly a nice and sweet lady, though most people only saw her rough exterior. "Though Fray is on tonight."

"We're not here for shifts, Charlotte," Jace said quickly.

"We're here to show these fine ladies around," Will brought Clary and Tessa forward, with an arm slung over either of their shoulders. He smiled at Charlotte, who was looking at him with an expression that almost struck Jace as affection.

"Who would they be, Will?" Charlotte questioned, lowering her board to her side. She casted both girls a small smile before looking back at the older Herondale cousin.

"They are our newest guests," Will said, "Clarissa," he nodded toward Clary, "and Theresa Fray."

"You can't mean the same Fray as Jonathan," Charlotte exclaimed, looking at Jon and then toward Tessa and Clary.

"Of course," Jon said. He walked forward and shoved Will out of the way and took his place, wrapping and arm around their shoulders.

"I thought that your sisters were dead," Charlotte protested.

"Yeah," Clary said, her small and polite smiled widened slightly. "Tessa and I thought Jon was dead too."

"Well," Charlotte said, "I'm glad that you were wrong. It's nice to meet you both and don't believe half the things that these boys tell you about their…" she trailed off, for a moment before smiling and saying, "_epic wins in battle_. I promise that most of the stories sound a lot neater than they actually are."

Jace clasped a hand over his heart, "How you wound me, Charlotte. I thought you knew how awesome I was."

She looked at Jace for a moment before looking at the girls as if to say, 'See what I mean!?'

"Come on, guys," Jon said, leading Clary and Tessa past Charlotte. "It's time for you to see what I've been doing for the past three months."

"Not so fast, Jon!" Charlotte called before they got too far. "I almost forgot. Luke wanted to meet with you and Alec. He came around her about fifteen minutes ago and told me to tell you if I saw you."

Jon looked down at his sisters and sighed lowly as he released his grip on their shoulders. "It could be important," he muttered. "I should go and figure out what's wrong." He smiled at his sisters and said, "Don't wait for me; I could be a while. I'll see you as soon as I'm done."

Both girls nodded and Jon jogged off, quickly disappearing behind a large and rickety building that Luke had deemed the Prison House.

"Come on," Will said. "I'll open the door for us."

They followed the cracked pavement to a large gate. There were two people standing outside of the door, which was secured shut by a large iron bar. "Tessa saw this coming in," Jace told Clary, who was walking in between him and Tessa. "You, on the other hand, were a bit preoccupied."

"A bit of an understatement," Clary muttered to him, her voice sounding distant. It was clear from the expression of wonder on her face that her mind was far, far away from where they were. He couldn't hide the smile that fought its way onto his lips from the look. She tore her eyes off the fence after a moment and looked over at him, a smile curling on her own mouth as well. "This feels like a dream. Am I still knocked out?"

"I know that I look amazing," Jace said with a laugh, "but this isn't a dream." He slung an arm around her shoulders as casually as he could and leaned down slightly to whisper in her ear. "I imagine you'll have me visiting your dreams a lot more often now, though."

"You all never cease to amaze me with your shameless narcissism," Clary informed him with a small laugh. He smiled back as well, though part of his grin might have come from the fact that she didn't jerk away from him like she thought she would.

"Shall we split up, Jonathan?" Will asked, looking over at Jace with a raised eyebrow.

Jace rolled his eyes and had to fight back a grin at the utter confusion that was plain in both girls' faces. "Yes, William, I think we should." He turned and held his hand out to Clary. She turned and looked at her sister, who was frowning slightly at Jace. Hesitantly, she placed her hand in his palm and he lightly closed his fingers around hers and brought her hand up as he placed a small kiss on the top. "This way, m'lady," he told her with a grin, "the rest of your grand tour awaits you."

Blood rushed into her cheeks and she captured her bottom lip between her teeth and began to gnaw on it slightly. "O-okay," she said and without another word, he turned and walked out the opened gate, nodding at Thomas, a large African American man with a friendly smile as he went. Clary stumbled confusedly behind him,

He lost sight of Will and Tessa after a moment, the wrought iron fence giving away to a variety of different materials that they'd used to make the walls more secure. "What are we doing?" Clary questioned him after a few moments. She sounded reasonably nervous, though he was unsure if it was because she was out here with him alone, or if it was because she was without Tessa.

"We're about to go through a round of guard duty," Jace announced. He unzipped his leather jacket and stuck his hand inside and clasped it around the sheathed blade that was sitting in the inside pocket.

"Here you are, ma'am," he said handing it to her. "I trust that you can take care of yourself, though I do request that you don't try to attack me. I quite like the way I look."

He heard her mutter something under her breath that sounded a lot like, _I can tell_. He smirked and said. "Don't let your guard down too easily," he advised her. "The zombies can be quiet little bastards when they want to be, and—"

"They always travel in packs," Clary finished for him with a small roll of her eyes. He liked that she was able to cut him off and finish his lecture correctly; she wasn't stupid. He smiled at the thought, it was a nice thought.

"Glad that you know that," Jace said turning to look at her with a smirk. "Allow me to show you that I'm a bit more skilled than what you saw in the store, and I'll let you show me that your spectacular save wasn't just luck."

Clary smiled at that and nodded. "Alright, Herondale," she said. "You're so on."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Tessa:<strong>_

"You think that Clary's going to be okay without me?" she questioned, looking up at Will with a furrowed brow. She inwardly cringed at the sound of the question, but didn't take it back all the same.

"Jace takes pride in his brain and his ability to handle himself and others," Will replied with a shrug. "She's in the most capable hands in the town…other than your own, of course."

Tessa didn't want to admit, even to herself, how much that reassurance had calmed her. She'd only known Will a couple of days, but his calm and confident attitude made her more relaxed; it made her feel like she didn't have to shoulder so much responsibility. It should have been her natural instinct to distrust that stupid feeling, but she couldn't bring herself to.

Will must have realized that Tessa wasn't going to reply, because he continued to speak, offering her his arm. She took it after only a moment's hesitation and tried to ignore the smile that was starting to stretch on his face. "I'm not the best person for that whole _taking care of people_ thing. I don't have Jace's uncharacteristic bedside manner."

"Are you just overly flirtatious?" Tessa questioned with twitching lips.

"_Me_, flirtatious?" Will asked. "I didn't know anyone thought that I was anything like that."

"Can't imagine why," Tessa replied, her lips twitching as they made it past the gate and the walls turned opaque.

"Shut up, Fray," Will shot back. "I don't know how I didn't see your resemblance to Jonathan before; you're both stubborn as hell."

Tessa looked over at Will and saw that he was fighting off a grin. "I'm going to take that as a compliment," she decided after a moment of silence. "Thank you, William."

* * *

><p>They were outside of the fence for maybe thirty minutes before they met Jace and Clary on the other side. Will was pointing out the different guard posts, where there were people with bows and arrows, waiting to take down any different forms of trouble that may occur. Apparently that has included domestic troubles in the past. They were walking toward them with grins on their faces as Jace muttered something to Clary that Tessa was too far away to hear. She heard her sister's laugh though; it was almost a shy one, which was uncharacteristic of the redhead.<p>

Tessa gave them both a strange look as they stopped maybe a yard from each other. She glanced over to see that Will was giving them almost the same expression. "Didn't know you were a comedian, little cousin," Will quipped. "She must have been laughing because she feels bad for how lacking you are in the wit department."

"If you were half as funny as you think you are," Jace replied, "you'd be twice as funny as you are now."

Tessa looked over at Will and saw that he was trying to think of something to say in return. Just what Jace said was enough to make her try to fight back the giggles that were dangerously close to escaping; the look on Will's face was what pushed her over the edge. A loud snort escaped from her, and she didn't even have it in her to be mortified by the sound. Clary was laughing too, looking at Will and pointing at the dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Something wrong, Herondale?" her sister teased, "Cat got your tongue?"

The corners of Will's lips slowly curved upward. "That was funny," he relented. "Your first one in a while." He looked at Tessa and said, "Any smooth and wise comments that come out of his mouth…believe that I've taught him everything he knows." He sighed dramatically and placed his hand on his forehead, "Sadly, I can only teach the daft boy so much!"

Tessa smiled at him faintly and shook her head. "You're both insane," she said decidedly.

"It's what makes us irresistible," Will quipped. "Come on though," he gestured to past Jace and Clary. "We need to finish the round!"

It was maybe half an hour later that they finished walking through the fence. It was a relatively uneventful time. Will told a few jokes here and there, and every now and again, they would pass a guard, who Will would greet by name with a nod before moving along.

When they made it to the gate, Jonathan was standing beside Charlotte, speaking to her with his hands clasped behind his back. He looked calm, and as though whatever he was talking about was light and small talk. Jace and Clary weren't back yet, but Tessa wasn't too concerned because Will didn't seem fazed by it.

Jon looked up as they walked toward him, a grin on his face. "Hey," he greeted. Tessa didn't miss the way that his smile seemed a little too happy. "Look, um, when Jace and Clary get back, I need to tell you something."

"What are you talking about?" Tessa questioned. Her eyebrows drew together into a frown as she crossed her arms. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Jonathan said quickly. He held his hands up in a placating gesture as he said. "Nothing's wrong, Tess. Luke told me that he wanted me to sit down with the two of you and talk about…" Jon sighed and shook his head. "Well," he shrugged. "They're quite a few things that we need to talk about."

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><p><strong>Yes, I know that I have left off Will's POV. I'm going to make his extra long next chapter to make up for that. Promise. Sorry for the shorter chapter compared to the length of time that it took for me to update. I don't think that it'll take that long for me to come out with the next chapter *fingers crossed* Things are going to start picking up very soon! *Yay!* I know you're all really excited about this prospect! <strong>

**Love you all that read, leave a review in the box below and let me know what you think!**


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